2 U.S. Marines missing after copter crash
Iraqi politicians continue to bicker over candidates for two key posts.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter crashed Saturday and its two crew members were missing in Anbar province, a volatile area west of the capital where insurgents are active. Hostile fire was not suspected as the cause of the crash, the U.S. military said.
Meanwhile, more than 30 people, including an Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players, were killed in attacks across Iraq on Saturday, including four who died when a bomb in a parked car exploded near a busy bus station in southern Baghdad. Seven people also were wounded in the blast, which bloodied passers-by and damaged a local restaurant.
The Marine helicopter went down while on a maintenance test flight and search-and-rescue efforts were under way for the missing crew members, the U.S. command said in a statement.
"We are using all the resources available to find our missing comrades," said a Marine spokesman, Lt. Col. Bryan Salas.
The U.S. military also reported that a Marine was killed Friday by "enemy action" in Anbar province. The death raised to at least 2,466 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Unfilled positions
Iraqi politicians continued to bicker over candidates for the key defense and interior ministry posts, leaving Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government incomplete a week after it assumed office.
"We hope the agreement will be reached within two or three days," Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi told reporters.
Filling the two posts is a contentious matter, especially after the recent surge in sectarian violence.
Political parties have agreed that a Sunni will head the Defense Ministry, which controls the army, and a Shiite will run the Interior Ministry, which oversees police forces. But they are struggling to find a consensus on who should get the jobs.
A senior Iranian official visited Iraq's Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, where he met with Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who was wrapping up the second high-level visit by an Iranian delegation since the ouster of Saddam Hussein three years ago, praised al-Sistani for his efforts to maintain unity in Iraq amid rising sectarian tensions.
Mottaki's trip to the southern cities after meeting with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on Friday highlighted the warming ties between the two countries, both of which have Shiite majorities. Saddam's regime was dominated by Sunnis, and Iraqi Shiites were repressed during his reign.
Also Saturday, a senior U.S. military official said coalition forces could begin transferring security control over some Iraqi provinces to civilian authorities and police by the end of summer, but Baghdad would not be handed over before the end of the year.