Iraq Watch: March 10, 2006

President Sets Parliamentary Date; Car Bomb Rattles Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, on Friday, called for Iraq's newly elected parliament to met March 19 — a week after the original deadline.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomber shook the once restive city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, on Friday killing at least five people.

Talabani summoned parliament despite not having reached an agreement on a prime minister.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's current prime minister, was nominated by his political bloc, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), for a second term but al-Jaafari's nomination has come under intense scrutiny as of late in the country's tenuous, sectarian atmosphere.

President Talabani told the al-Arabiya television network, "There is a serious crisis, and if we don't agree on a government of national unity there will be dangerous consequences, a catastrophe. We could have civil war."

In Fallujah, the car bomber drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a joint U.S.-Iraqi security checkpoint in the eastern part of the mostly Sunni city. The blast left at least five people dead, including a U.S. Marine, according to the U.S. military. Reuters put the death toll at 11 while AFP reported eight deaths in the incident.

In ongoing sectarian violence, which has been on the up tick following the February 22 bombing of the revered Shiite Askariya shrine, a Sunni imam was killed along with another civilian when a car bomb detonated outside of the Qiba mosque in Samarra.

The capital city saw sporadic violence as well Friday as thousands flocked to traditional Jumuah prayers. Two police officers were killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb exploded next to their patrol in a western district of the city.

Separately, one Iraqi police officer was killed and four were injured in two bombings in Tikrit, north of the capital.

Also in Baghdad, authorities discovered the executed bodies of six unidentified individuals. All six of the men, believed to be between the ages of 30 and 45, were found blindfolded, handcuffed, and shot in the head. Additionally, two more executed bodies, one with its throat slit, were found near Kut, 100 miles southeast of the capital.