Iraqis get new govt as US, UK feel the heat
AFP, Baghdad
Iraq's transitional Governing Council named a new 25-member post-war government as the United States and Britain faced increased public pressure to start bringing some of their troops home.Meanwhile, thousands of mourners from across Iraq and neighbouring, mostly-Shiite Iran paid their final respects to slain Muslim Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, who was assassinated Friday in Najaf. Iraqi police have questioned 19 suspects, two of them Saudis, over the car bomb massacre, that killed at least another 82 people and wounded 125. Iraq's Governing Council announced the names of the 24 men and one woman who will act as ministers in an interim government until elections are held next year. The new cabinet is divided up among the country's various communities, with 13 ministries going to Muslim Shiites, five to Sunnis, five to Kurds, one to Turkmen and one to the Christians. It will not have defence and intelligence ministries nor will a prime minister be appointed, as that role will be filled out by the council's rotating chairmen. The key oil ministry goes to Shiite Ibrahim Mohammad Bahr al-Ulum, and the interior minister post will be held by another Shiite, Nuri Badran, a council source told AFP. The foreign affairs portfolio will go to a Kurd, Hoshiar al-Zibari, while finance goes to a Sunni, Kamel al-Kailani, said a governing council member, Nasseer al-Shadershi. US President George Bush faced growing calls from within his own party and from candidates to unseat him in next year's election to bring more international troops into the country. At the same time, a poll in Britain revealed a public that wants a scaled-down British troop presence in Iraq. US troops Sunday moved in force into a district of the northern city of Mosul -- where American forces killed Saddam Hussein's son Uday and Qusay on July 22 -- amid reports Saddam might be hiding there. Friday's bombing in Najaf, along with the deadly attacks on the UN headquarters in Baghdad on August 19 and the Jordanian Embassy on August 7, have fuelled fears that Iraq is spinning out of control five months after major combat operations were declared over. It has fuelled the anger of Iraq's Shiite community, who make up about 60 percent of the population but who were systematically oppressed by Saddam's Sunni elite. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it will investigate links between the Najaf bombing and the other two.
| 
