Roundup: Iraq approves complete cabinet with new security accomplishment

The Iraqi parliament approved on Thursday the candidates for three key security portfolios submitted by the new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, while the most wanted al-Qaida insurgent in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been killed.

After the legislature's nod, Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jasim, a Sunni Arab, heads the defense ministry, Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, becomes the interior minister and Sherwan al-Waily, also a Shiite, leads the state ministry of national security.

The three ministers were then officially sworn in.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Maliki told a Baghdad press conference, attended by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and top U. S. commander in Iraq General George Casey, that he would present nominees for the key security portfolios to parliament for approval.

The parliament would convene later in the day and vote on his nominees for interior, defense and national security portfolios, Maliki told the reporters with confidence, stressing that "those ministries will not be the ministries of any party or any sect."

Well-informed sources said that before Maliki's nomination, the dominant Shiite bloc had finally reached an agreement on the nominees for the key ministries.

The three posts, considered key to curbing rampant violence in Iraq, have remained vacant due to political haggling inside the Shiite bloc and among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Maliki has been forced to delay the announcement of the names of the ministers for several times in the past.

Now the Maliki cabinet has been completed. But political analysts said despite the formation of the new Iraqi national unity government since May 20, violence has persisted in the war- torn country.

The new ministers will face an uphill battle in curbing rampant violence and restoring safety and order in Iraq, they added.

An explosive charge went off in a popular market in southern Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing 13 people and wounding 28 others, an Interior Ministry source said.

"An explosive charge detonated at about 11:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) in a busy market in Baghdad's al-Jadida neighborhood, killing 13 people and wounding 28 others," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off near a police station in the same neighborhood, which killed two people and wounded eight others including four policemen, according to the source.

Four Iraqi security members were also killed and eight people wounded between late Wednesday and Thursday in attacks in Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a source from the U.S. and Iraqi liaison office in Baquba told Xinhua.

Though violence have persisted in Iraq, the killing of the most wanted al-Qaida insurgent in Iraq Zarqawi Wednesday evening has encouraged the Maliki government to carry out its duties in curbing rampant violence and restoring safety and order.

Shortly before the parliament approval of the three key security portfolios Thursday, Maliki hailed in a news conference that Zarqawi had been killed.

According to the announcement, Zarqawi and seven of his top aides were killed on Wednesday evening in a joined U.S.-Iraqi air raid on an area called Hibhib, some 40 km northeast of Baghdad.

The strike was the result of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area, and US forces acted on the information, said Maliki.

The announcement came six days after Zarqawi showed up in a video tape, calling on followers to launch a war against Shiites in Iraq.

The killing of the most wanted insurgent in Iraq "constituted a message to all those involved in the insurgency against the state, " said Maliki, vowing to "face all kinds of challenges."

"The sole road for the prosperity of the Iraqi people is by means of unity and national conciliation," he added.

Source: Xinhua