Iraqi PM gains backing for key security jobs

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki has won the approval of his Shi’ite Alliance for
nominees for the interior and defense posts and will present
them to parliament on Thursday, Shi’ite sources said.

Separately, the U.S. military said Maliki would make a
“very important announcement” at a news conference in Baghdad
due to start around 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT).

An official in Maliki’s office said it would be with the
top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, but did not
give details. It was not clear whether it was related to the
expected nomination of new interior and defense ministers.

“Last night the Alliance gave Maliki authorization to
present the candidates for interior and defense minister to
parliament today,” Alliance member Bahaa al-Araji told Reuters.

Maliki apparently broke the deadlock by offering to present
two Shi’ite nominees for interior minister — Jawaad al-Bolani
and Farouk al-Araji — in a bid to satisfy several leaders in
his fractious Alliance.

Maliki’s Sunni Arab nominee for defense minister — Iraqi
ground forces commander General Abdel Qader Jassim — remains
the same, said the sources.

Parliamentary approval for any candidates Maliki offers
could help pull him out of a political crisis that has hurt
efforts to impose a security crackdown against a Sunni Arab
insurgency and sectarian violence raising fears of civil war.

Sunnis and Kurds have told Maliki they would back his
candidate Araji for interior minister but three rival parties
in his Alliance want Bolani, a former army colonel under Saddam
Hussein.

The interior ministry came under intense scrutiny under the
previous minister, accused by Sunni leaders of sanctioning
death squads, a charge he denied.

Maliki has said he wanted to choose non-sectarian ministers
to run his national unity government of Shi’ites, Kurds and
Sunnis, the minority sect once dominant under Saddam.

The political stalemate that has prevented him from filling
the top security posts since he took power on May 20 has been
set against some of the most gruesome violence Iraq has seen
since a 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam.

Police found a total of 17 severed heads in Diyala province
north of Baghdad over the last few days and gunmen dragged 24
people, mostly students, out of their cars in the same area and
shot them dead on Sunday.

(Reporting by Mariam Karouny; editing by Philippa Fletcher)