Iraq Watch: January 25, 2006

Prime Minister Candidates Proposed; Clashes Erupt in Ramadi

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite politicians announced that four candidates have been proposed for Iraq's prime minister position in talks currently being held between Shiite, Kurdish, and Sunni political leaders. The discussions, spearheaded by the conservative Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), began Tuesday. The four mentioned for the top spot in Iraq include current Prime Minister and Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Hussein al-Shahrastani, SCIRI's Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and Nadim al-Jabiri of the Fadhila party.

Meanwhile, in further violence reported Wednesday, prominent Sunni cleric Karim Jassim Mohammed was shot to death by Iraqi police after he failed to stop at a checkpoint near the northern city of Samarra.

Elsewhere, five bodyguards of Shuja'a al-Saadi, a brigadier general in the Iraqi army, were killed and two injured in a roadside bombing in Ishaaqi, about 80 miles north of the capital.

In the insurgent-infested city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, intense clashes broke out between militants and U.S. forces. Iraqi cameraman Mahmoud Zaal was killed while filming the firefight for Baghdad TV - a television station funded by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). At least seven insurgents were killed during the course of two separate engagements in central Ramadi according to the U.S. military. Additionally, two civilians died and three more were wounded after getting caught in the crosshairs.

In attacks against Iraqi security personal, gunmen killed two police officers in the volatile city of Baqouba while another policeman was slain in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. military announced that a U.S. Marine, assigned to the II MEF, was killed yesterday by enemy small-arms fire in al-Karmah.