Iraqi lawmakers elect new president

BAGHDAD: Despite a rocket attack on Baghdad´s Green Zone, Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday elected a new president in hopes of ending a year of political gridlock and violence in the war-scarred nation.

Iraqi Kurd Abdel Latif Rashid, 78, was elected as the new Iraqi head of state, replacing Barham Saleh, by the assembly in the capital´s heavily fortified government and diplomatic district.

Rashid won more than 160 votes against 99 for the incumbent Saleh, an assembly official said. Rashid´s first task was expected to be nominating a candidate for prime minister to replace the current caretaker premier, Mustafa al-Kadhemi, and attempt to form a new government for the crisis-hit nation.

A favoured candidate for the prime minister´s post was Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, of the Muslim bloc the Coordination Framework, which includes pro-Iranian former paramilitary groups.

When Sudani was first proposed in July, this sparked mass protests by backers of his rival, the fiery populist and cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose followers breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament.

A new reminder of Iraq´s troubles came on Thursday as the lawmakers headed into parliament, when a barrage of nine Katyusha-style rockets rained down on the area, the security forces said.

At least 10 people were wounded, including six members of the security forces or bodyguards of lawmakers, as well as four civilians in a nearby district, a security official told AFP.

US Ambassador Alina Romanowski condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” on Twitter and warned that “the people of Iraq must resolve their political differences & grievances solely thru peaceful means. “Attacks like these undermine democracy & trap Iraq in a perpetual cycle of violence.”