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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS