Shiite Arab leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari was sworn in as prime minister as Iraq's first democratically elected government took office Tuesday.
One by one, al-Jaafari and members of his Cabinet walked up to a podium and pledged to defend Iraq and its people. But a number of ministries -- including the key defense and oil industries -- remained in temporary hands.
After months of wrangling, al-Jaafari negotiated a Cabinet that so far includes 15 Shiite Arab ministers, seven Kurds, four Sunnis and one Christian. Two of four deputy prime ministers were also sworn in, a Shiite and a Kurd.
The much-awaited swearing-in ceremony took place in the Green Zone, a fortified compound in Baghdad which houses all the country's key institutions.
The new interim government will take over from Iyad Allawi's US-appointed administration and will be tasked with drafting a permanent constitution for Iraq and organizing fresh elections before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the US military reported that it had found the body of an airman who went missing when contact was lost with two US jets overflying Iraq overnight.
NBC News, citing US navy officials, said earlier that the jets had been involved in a mid-air collision. Much of Iraq was engulfed in a fierce sandstorm late Monday and overnight.
Searching continued for the other crew member.
The military also announced the death of one of its troops in a bomb attack near Baghdad airport on Monday, as the death toll from a week of bloodshed continued to mount.
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks since Jaafari announced the partial Cabinet line-up on April 28, killing close to 150 people in five days, most of them Iraqi civilians.
A senior water ministry official was gunned down in southern Baghdad in broad daylight yesterday, while three policemen were killed in separate attacks north of the capital, security sources said.
US and Iraqi forces have cracked down on suspected insurgents in response to the fresh surge in attacks. Some 100 were captured in the Baghdad area on Monday.
The US military also announced yesterday that it had killed 12 insurgents with links to al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman, the Jordanian Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, near the Syrian border.
A six-year-old child was wounded in the operation, which involved air strikes, it said.
The violence dashed hopes that the announcement of a new Iraqi government, following general elections held on Jan. 30, would undermine the insurgency.
The polls were the first since former president Saddam Hussein was toppled two years ago but the deposed dictator's Sunni Arab minority community was kept away from polling stations by boycott calls and security threats.
The Sunni Arabs had received promises from the winning Shiite alliance of key posts in the government to counterbalance their under-representation in parliament.
But after Jaafari unveiled his partial line-up, Sunni leaders complained of tokenism and even threatened to quit the government altogether.
After a last-minute deal, Sunnis were to be handed the defence ministry along with at least five other portfolios and a post of deputy premier, a Sunni MP said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS