The Iraqi parliament in Baghdad is expected to convene for the first time in three months amid deadly attacks that continue to plague the Iraqi capital.
Lawmakers were summoned for a general session on Tuesday as divisions linger over the cabinet position appointments proposed by Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Haider Abadi and rejected by Kurdish and Sunni parliamentarians, Rudaw reports.
Baghdad has been gripped by some of the deadliest violence in recent years at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). Recent ISIS attacks in the Iraqi capital have killed and wounded hundreds.
Last week, Rudaw reported that Iraq’s interior minister and security chief of Baghdad would soon be summoned by lawmakers for questioning over the deteriorating security in the Iraqi capital.
The news outlet notes:
Shakhawan Abdullah, head of the parliamentary security and defense committee told Rudaw that the interior minister and chief of Baghdad operations must answer for the capital’s security, particularly rumors about the use of “a new and strange” type of explosives in the Karrada bombing.
Abdullah said that the two officials were responsible for security and that they must explain to the members of parliament and the public details of the deadly bombing and Baghdad’s security plans.
The attack in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood, deemed the deadliest single bombing in the capital since February 2007, killed more than 200 people and injured over 200 more.
Terrorist attacks bearing the hallmarks of ISIS continued to torment Baghdad residents on Tuesday, when the Iraqi parliament was expected to meet.
A suicide car bombing ripped through an outdoor market in a Shiite-controlled district of Baghdad on Tuesday morning, killing at least 11 people and injuring up to 32 others.
On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, said the Obama administration will deploy another 560 troops to Iraq to help combat ISIS.
Rudaw learned from Iraqi lawmaker Musanna Amin that “his fellow Kurdish MPs will also be present at the general assembly [ Tuesday] after they left the Iraqi parliament in late April following a sit-in that turned violent.”
“Several Kurdish MPs were attacked by crowds of rioters who were believed to be Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s supporters accusing the parliament and the government of corruption,” it adds.
Iraqi lawmakers were expected to discuss PM Abadi’s cabinet appointees.
Abadi’s cabinet members “still hope for an endorsement from an unreceptive parliament with both Kurdish and Sunni groups rejecting the reshuffling of their cabinet ministers,” notes Rudaw.
“Prime Minister Abadi’s efforts to reshuffle most of his cabinet minsters collapsed as both Kurdish and Sunni factions announced they would not take part in his so called technocratic government,” it adds.
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