A key ally of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called Tuesday for Iraq's parliament to be dissolved and new elections held immediately. Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker from al-Sadr's 30-member bloc, told reporters in Baghdad that the parliament has "become a burden on the Iraqi people rather than an institution to solve their problems and offer services."
"The parliament has become a very weak institution because of the way the elections took place, especially in Anbar and Mosul and some other southern provinces. I call for revising the election law," al-Araji said, according to the AP.
He said he was expressing his own views, and not speaking for his parliamentary bloc.
The next parliamentary elections are currently scheduled for 2009.
Meanwhile, police said at least nine Iraqis were killed Tuesday, including a policeman and his 13-year-old son shot dead in northern Iraq. Capt. Mohammed Jamil, a Kurd, was driving his family through their hometown of Kirkuk, when a sedan pulled up alongside him, according to Col. Sardar Moufri, one of Jamil's colleagues.
Four men riding in the sedan showered Jamil's car with bullets, killing him and his son, Moufri said. Jamil's wife was wounded in the attack, which happened around 8 a.m., he said.
Four Iraqi soldiers died when a roadside bomb exploded next to their patrol in Baqouba, police said. Two others were wounded in the blast, they said.
Meanwhile in a Sunni area south of Baghdad, two civilians were killed and two others wounded when another roadside bomb exploded next to their car, police added.
Farther south in Hillah, about 60 miles south of the capital, another drive-by shooting killed a construction worker who was on contract with the U.S. military, police said. U.S. officials had no immediate comment on the incident.
Elsewhere, American and Iraqi forces killed an estimated 15 al Qaeda gunmen during a fierce battle south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. In its statement, the Americans said up to 45 al Qaeda fighters assaulted two checkpoints operated by local security guards on Monday using a mix of small arms and heavy-calibre machineguns mounted on trucks, sparking a day-long fight.
At one stage, F-16 warplanes dropped two 500 lb bombs on routes used by the gunmen to attack the checkpoints in the town of Adwaniya, 20 km southeast of Baghdad near the Tigris River.
