Four US troops killed as Iraqis wrangle on govt

By Mariam Karouny and Hiba Moussa

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A roadside bomb near Baghdad killed
four U.S. soldiers on Thursday and Iraq’s leaders fought
last-minute battles for jobs in a much delayed national unity
government before a parliament vote scheduled for Saturday.

An Iraqi interpreter also died in the blast northwest of
the capital in the type of violence Washington hopes a grand
coalition of Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds will start to tackle
after five months of stalemate.

Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki is juggling with a
host of names put forward by the various political parties for
the posts already broadly allocated to them, negotiators said.

Factional fighting within Maliki’s own Shi’ite Alliance
bloc and others was complicating the task of appointing
ministers to be confirmed in Saturday’s expected parliamentary
vote.

“He’s got too many names in front of him and he’s trying to
please everyone,” one senior negotiator said.

“All options are open,” said another senior official.

Washington hopes a government backed by all Iraq’s ethnic
and sectarian communities which turned out peacefully and in
large numbers to vote in December, can turn the tide of
violence, though officials concede that it will take time.

Hundreds of people are killed every month in Baghdad alone,
their bodies turning up often handcuffed and mutilated. Tens of
thousands of people have also fled their homes in fear.

U.S. TROOPS

With congressional elections in November and President
George W. Bush’s approval ratings hitting new lows due to the
Iraq war, U.S. officials are keen to start withdrawing troops.

But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told senators on
Wednesday he could not promise to reduce the number of
Americans from the present 130,000 this year, much as he would
like to.

The four soldiers killed on Thursday, as well as a sailor
attached to Marine forces who died in western Iraq on
Wednesday, took the U.S. death toll this month to 51, making
the first part of May one of the bloodiest periods of the past
year.

Roadside bombs are the biggest killers of U.S. troops in
Iraq and commanders say insurgents have developed bigger and
more powerful devices to combat advances in American armor.

At least 2,454 Americans have died in Iraq since 2003 in a
war in which Washington has had few allies willing to risk
their own citizens’ lives. Italy’s newly elected centre-left
prime minister, Romano Prodi, told parliament the invasion had
been a “grave error” and he proposed bringing Rome’s 3,000
troops home.

In Basra, new Defense Secretary Des Browne visited some of
Britain’s 8,000 soldiers — the second biggest contingent in
Iraq — after some of their toughest weeks in the south.

British officials hope Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government in
Baghdad will quickly turn its attention to quelling the
fighting among Shi’ite factions in Basra, Iraq’s oil-rich
second city, that they believe has spawned attacks on British
troops.

Basra’s police chief survived a bomb attack on Thursday.

Browne said: “This upsurge in violence … is a reflection
of the power struggle … for those who have taken advantage of
the political hiatus of the past five months.”

SHI’ITES DIVIDED

The fragmentation of Maliki’s Alliance bloc among more than
a dozen Shi’ite Islamist parties is reflected in last-minute
competition for those jobs in the new government — about half
of the 30 ministries — already allocated to the Shi’ites.

Under a constitutional deadline, he has until Monday to
present his cabinet to parliament.

Gunmen killed six Baghdad laborers going to work in a
minibus and a bomb in the capital killed seven people,
including four policemen on Thursday. Many more deaths go
unreported.

Kidnapping is another scourge. Officials were trying to
secure the release of 15 members of the national tae kwondo
martial arts squad, abducted on a desert road on Wednesday.

A source close to Maliki said Shi’ite former army officer
Nasser al-Amery was close to securing the Interior Ministry.
But he faced stiff opposition from rivals who regard him as
close to the party that has run the ministry this past year and
has faced accusations of running death squads within the police
force.

Sunnis and the United States have demanded a non-partisan
figure to run the ministry in the new, full-term
administration.

Among Iraqis’ complaints over the U.S. presence is
shootings of civilians at checkpoints. Responding to these, the
Pentagon said troops now had lasers to dazzle drivers who
failed to stop.

It insisted they were legal and would not cause blindness.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed, Fredrik Dahl, Aseel
Kami and Alastair Macdonald)