Groups oppose Shiite nominee

The effort to defeat the prime minister further increases sectarian tensions.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Sunni, Kurdish and secular leaders launched a bid Thursday to derail the nomination of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the next government, threatening to reignite the sectarian tensions that have engulfed the country since last week's bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
The Iraqi government reimposed a daytime curfew in Baghdad to head off possible violence at prayers today, underscoring the continued fear of sectarian violence more than a week after the attack on the gold-domed Askariya shrine in Samarra, which unleashed a wave of retaliatory attacks against Sunni mosques. All vehicle traffic will be banned in Baghdad through 4 p.m. today, the government announced shortly after the 8 p.m. evening curfew went into effect.
At least 30 people were reported killed in scattered incidents of violence, most of them in insurgent bombings against civilians and Iraqi security forces, and the U.S. military reported the death Wednesday of an American soldier in Anbar province "while conducting combat operations."
Talks in disarray
The Kurds, Sunnis and secular blocs in parliament conveyed their decision not to support al-Jaafari's candidacy in a letter delivered to the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition that won the most seats in the legislature elected in December.
The move to unseat al-Jaafari, the UIA nominee, threw into disarray the stalled talks on forming a new government, setting the stage for a prolonged period of political paralysis that could further widen the divide that has opened up between the country's Shiite majority and the Sunni minority.
But it could also give fresh impetus to the notion being promoted by U.S. officials in Iraq that the country's next government must be formed on the basis of consensus, by forcing the Shiite coalition to make compromises.
Al-Jaafari's aides warned that the already fragile situation in the country could deteriorate further if his candidacy is rejected.
"Things might get worse on the streets, and the government may need to reapply the curfew," Jawad al-Maliki, a top official with al-Jaafari's Dawa Party, said at a news conference broadcast live on the state run Iraqiya TV. "Jaafari is the choice of the UIA."
Criticism of Al-Jaafari
Al-Jaafari's tenure as prime minister over the past 10 months has been widely criticized, but it was his lukewarm performance over the past week of crisis that has cemented opposition to his candidacy, his opponents said.
Fueling the concerns about al-Jaafari is the close alliance he appears to have developed with the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters were instrumental in securing al-Jaafari's nomination. Al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote over his rival after Sadr threw his support behind him.
Al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, is accused of playing a leading role in carrying out the wave of attacks against Sunni mosques that followed the attack on the Shiite shrine.
In a further act of defiance to the government's efforts to reimpose order after the chaos of last week, al-Sadr's office in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City announced that the Mahdi Army would henceforth take control of security in the area, after a car bomb killed five people there.