M A I N   N E W S

Iraqi Prime Minister gets one month to form government
5 killed in mortar attack

Baghdad, April 23
Fresh mortar attacks and the discovery of six bodies in Baghdad on Sunday highlighted the security challenge still facing Iraqi leaders after they broke months of political deadlock to appoint a new Prime Minister.

Jawad al-Maliki, chosen on Saturday, has a month to form a Cabinet sharing power among Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds and his choices for key posts, such as Interior Minister, are seen as critical to uniting Iraqis and winning their trust.

"Overcoming this impasse of forming the government doesn't mean solving all political crises in Iraq," Saleem al- Jubouri, a professor at Baquba's Diyala University, said on Sunday.

"Maliki has tough issues to deal with -- occupation, regional intervention, armed militias and illegal detention centres."

Underlining the security crisis, a mortar attack killed at least five persons near the Defence Ministry on Sunday, within earshot of the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to Maliki and other government leaders.

And the police found the bodies of six young men, shot in the head, in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiya where sectarian tensions sparked gun battles last week. — Reuters