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Iraq gets new government as bombs kill 24 people

Iraq’s parliament finally approved a new national unity government on Saturday, ending months of deadlock in the strife-torn nation.

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BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament finally approved a new national unity government on Saturday, ending months of deadlock as bomb attacks that killed 24 people served a grim reminder of the security challenges it will face.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s cabinet was approved by a show of hands, minister by minister, after a turbulent start to the parliamentary session, when some minority Sunni leaders spoke out against the last-minute deal and several walked out.

Eleventh-hour battles over the key posts of interior and defence left those jobs vacant for now, filled respectively by Maliki, a tough-talking Shi’ite Islamist, and his Sunni deputy premier,
Salam al-Zobaie.

The main Sunni Arab leadership, which controls the bulk of the Sunnis’ 50-odd seats in the 275-member chamber, held firm after the walkout by the dissidents. Washington hopes their presence at last in a full, sovereign government can draw Saddam Hussein’s once dominant minority away from revolt into politics.

“We will work within a framework that will preserve the unity of the Iraqi people,” Maliki told parliament as he listed 34 policy priorities highlighting security and the economy. The chamber then approved the program clearing the way for the government to be formally sworn in.

Sectarian wrangling has delayed formation of a government since an election in December. Faction fighting over cabinet jobs within the main groups, Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds, added to Maliki’s difficulties as he was nominated a month ago.

Bomb Attacks
Just hours before parliament sat in the heavily fortified Green Zone, protected by US military firepower, a bomb killed at least 19 people in the poor Shi’ite Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad, blasting a spot where crowds of workers had gathered in the hope of being hired for day labouring jobs.

A further 58 people were wounded in a blast that was typical of attacks by Sunni Islamist groups like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi''s al Qaeda in Iraq. Baghdad and, especially, the Shi’ite-dominated south of Iraq has also seen violence between Shi’ite factions.

In the Sunni town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-packed vest inside a police station killing five policemen and wounding 10, police said.

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