Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Iraqi PM vows action on security jobs, Basra

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday he will overrule squabbling parties in his coalition and present parliament with his personal nominees for two key security posts if they fail to agree this week.

Maliki also told Reuters in an interview that he will fly to Iraq's second city Basra
on Wednesday to end faction fighting among fellow Shi'ites and that he is ready to use force against "gangs" holding crucial oil exports to ransom.

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Intense wrangling forced him to leave the interior and defense ministry portfolios
temporarily vacant when he unveiled his cabinet, an early setback for his drive to crush the raging Sunni insurgency and bridge Iraq's ethnic and religious divide.

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In one of several deadly incidents on Tuesday, two women employees of the Ministry of Interior were killed by a rocket which landed near the ministry, police said. A roadside bomb killed a police commando in southern Baghdad, and in the town of Hilla, a suicide bomber in a car killed at least eight people.

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