Gunmen kidnap up to 50 at Iraq security firm

The grisly discovery of corpses began when an American military patrol found 18 bodies — all men — in a bus on a road between two dangerous and mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods.

The bodies were brought to Yarmouk Hospital and lined up on stretchers for identification. Most had bruises indicating they were garroted and two were shot, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad. Police believed at least two of the men were foreign Arabs.

Police found the bodies of six more men — four of them strangled and two shot — discarded in other parts of the city.

One often overlooked undercurrent of the daily bloodshed in today’s Iraq is its effect on children. At least two boys were killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing, police said. And gunmen stopped a school bus carrying about 25 high school girls, shooting the driver in front of his terrified passengers. He later died of his injuries, police said.

Wednesday’s political breakthrough — the signing of the decree calling parliament into session — did not mean the country’s political crisis was over. It could, however, bring the deepening feud to a head.

Divided over al-Jaafari
The Shiite Alliance is itself divided over al-Jaafari’s candidacy. He defeated Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and one of two vice presidents, by a single vote in the Shiite caucus last month, largely because of al-Sadr’s backing.

Talabani, whose job it is to call parliament into session, sought to do that three days ago but was unable to persuade Abdul-Mahdi to sign as required by the constitution. Talabani was trying to force the hand of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the country’s senior Shiite politician and head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Abdul-Mahdi heads the Shiite parliamentary bloc loyal to al-Hakim.

A senior Shiite politician, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity nature of the information, said Abdul-Mahdi signed Talabani’s presidential decree after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad sought al-Hakim’s intervention during a meeting Tuesday.

Political insiders now say al-Jaafari’s candidacy depends on how the bloc loyal to al-Hakim and Abdul-Mahdi decides to vote. Al-Hakim and Abdul-Mahdi are widely said by politicians to oppose his nomination but have held back from outright opposition because they fear incurring the wrath of al-Sadr.

Nadim al-Jabiri, head of one of six other Shiite political factions, said the decision to sign was made on advice Wednesday from Iraq’s Federal Court, which said parliament could be convened through an alternative process if Abdul-Mahdi continued to hold out.

By law, parliament has 15 days after it is convened to elect a new president. It then has 15 more days to approve the prime minister, and 30 days after that to vote on his Cabinet.

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