Insurgent Attacks in Iraq Leave 33 Dead
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050308/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqBAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi insurgents set off bombs and fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at military convoys, checkpoints and police patrols in a spate of violence Monday that killed 33 people and wounded dozens.
As the attacks persisted, so did negotiations to form Iraq's first democratically elected government. Iraqi Kurds said they were close to a deal with the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance to secure many of their territorial demands and ensure the country's secular character after its National Assembly convenes March 16.
The dominant Shiite Muslim alliance, however, said although it agreed that Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani would become Iraq's president, it was still talking about other conditions set by the Kurds for their support in the 275-member legislative body.
The Shiite alliance controls 140 seats and need the 75 seats won by the Kurds in the Jan. 30 elections to muster the necessary two-thirds majority to elect a president and later seat their choice for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.