Iraq lawmakers’ boycott scuttles vote on two Cabinet nominees

BAGHDAD —  Lawmakers from several Iraqi parties boycotted a parliamentary session Thursday, in effect derailing efforts by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to get approval for nominees to fill two vacant Cabinet posts.

At least 196 legislators had signed their names as present at the parliament, but almost 100 of them failed to show up for the session when they learned that voting for new ministers of justice and communications was on the agenda, attendees said.

Without a simple majority of its 275 members present, the parliament could not conduct the vote.

The session had been disrupted the day before by lawmakers protesting what they said was overly aggressive behavior toward them by U.S. soldiers guarding the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area in Baghdad where the parliament is located.

The boycott Thursday underscored the political divisions that remain despite reduced sectarian violence. Lawmakers have failed to make significant progress in tackling legislation that Washington views as crucial for fostering reconciliation among the country’s religious and ethnic groups.

Rashid Azzawi, a legislator with the Iraqi Accordance Front, a major Sunni Muslim bloc in the parliament, said the boycott had nothing to do with the affiliations of the nominees. Both candidates -- a Shiite Muslim to fill the justice post and a Sunni Arab for the communications position -- are considered independents.

“Some lawmakers were surprised that voting for the nominees was on the agenda,” Azzawi said. “That was the cause of the boycott.”

In other developments, 12 people were killed and 25 wounded when militants fired Katyusha rockets at a village near the city of Baqubah in Diyala province, local police sources said.

The rockets reportedly hit the village of Salam, which has been caught in a power struggle between tribes and militants aligned with the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, local leaders said.

Diyala, a province that borders Iran, is an Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold that had been racked by sectarian violence. U.S. commanders there have reported success in stemming attacks.

About 5,000 U.S. combat troops are expected to complete withdrawal from Diyala next month, but the overall number of soldiers there will increase as other forces are redeployed from elsewhere in the country to cover the pullout.

In a separate incident, gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms stopped a minibus at a fake checkpoint outside Baqubah and kidnapped 14 passengers, provincial police officials said.

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ann.simmons@latimes.com

Times staff writers Wail Alhafith and Saif Hameed and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.