Nine rockets hit the Green Zone of the Iraqi capital shortly before a session of Parliament in which the new president would be elected, in an attempt to end the country’s political crisis, this Thursday (13).
At least ten people were injured. Several of them were security forces protecting the area, which is home to government buildings and foreign embassies.
Similar attacks took place last month as the house held a vote to confirm its speaker.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the act. Bombings have occurred regularly in the area in recent years, but they are mostly aimed at Westerners, and are launched by Iranian-backed militias.
Tuesday’s vote comes after a year-long political stalemate that began with the election of the party of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
One of the few people in Iraq — apart from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a major Shi’ite religious authority — capable of mobilizing large masses, he cannot mount a government, however. The announcement that he would withdraw from politics sparked one of the biggest scenes of recent violence in Baghdad, with his supporters storming the government palace and fighting rival Shi’ite groups, most of them financed by Iran.
Parliament met shortly after the attack. The presidency is mainly a symbolic post, but its vote is an important step in the political process. This is because he is the one who invites a representative of the largest parliamentary bloc to form a government.
In a power-sharing system designed to avoid sectarian conflict, Iraq’s president is Kurdish, the prime minister a Shiite and the speaker of parliament a Sunni. Disagreements between the biggest Kurdish parties that run the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq have prevented the choice of a president.
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