Iraqi leaders struggled Saturday to reach agreement on candidates for two key security posts that remained vacant a week after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of national unity took office. According to the AP, his spokesman, Yassin Majid, said the main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs in the 275-member parliament would resume talks on the candidates Saturday afternoon "and probably this issue will be settled today."
On the ground, at least 15 people died in a series of attacks in Iraq. The US a military said Saturday that a marine was killed "in enemy action" in the western province of Al-Anbar on Friday.
In Baquba, gunmen shot up the convoy of Kahtan al-Bawi, chief office administrator for the police and brother of city chief of police Gassan al-Bawi, killing him and two other officers.
According to AFP, five workers died when gunmen opened fire on their workshop in Baquba, north of Baghdad, where they were repairing car tires. Nearby, gunmen killed a former police officer and a relative as they traveled in their car.
Hadi Abdul Mohsim, director of the Baquba branch of the Iraqi Association for the Defense of Human Rights, was wounded in a gun attack on his vehicle north of the city.
In Baghdad, one police officer died and another wounded when a bomb was set off against their patrol in the Mansur district, an interior ministry source said.
Another two police officers were shot dead in separate attacks in Tikrit and another in Kirkuk.
In Samarra, a merchant in the city's central Bazaar was shot dead by gunmen.
