A car blast in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 18 people and injured more than 30. The bombing reported in a market located at Shaab neighborhood.
On the political front, the Iraqi cabinet unanimously passed a new draft of a law that would distribute oil revenues among the war-torn country's Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni sects. Iraq's parliament is to debate it on Wednesday.
Kurds and others claimed the original revenue distribution was unfair. It should be mentioned that most of Iraq's oil is concentrated in the mainly Shi'ite south and Kurdish north, with little in the Sunni central region. American officials hope that a passage of the oil bill will help rally Sunni support for the government and the political process and reduce backing for the armed groups.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki called the bill "the most important law in Iraq."
