Iraq postpones vote for president, delaying power-sharing deal

Iraq's parliament postponed voting for the country's president on Wednesday, delaying the formation of a power-sharing government urgently needed to confront a Sunni uprising.
 
The advance by Sunni Islamist militants who seized swathes of northern Iraq last month has put Iraq's survival in jeopardy.

Its politicians have been deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in April. 

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials say the death toll from a late night suicide attack targeting a police checkpoint in Baghdad has climbed to 33 people, most of them civilians.

The bomber had rammed his explosives-packed car into a checkpoint in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah where people lined up in cars for security checks en route to a revered Shiite shrine during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Police officials said that along with 31 killed, the explosion also left at least 58 people wounded. Initial reports had 21 killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to talk to media.

Baghdad has been on edge since the Sunni militant blitz led by the Islamic State extremist group seized large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an overnight suicide bombing in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad which killed 33 people, one of the deadliest recent attacks in the Iraqi capital.               

The hardline Sunni Islamist group which has led an offensive through northern and western Iraq said the explosion in Kazimiya, site of a major Sh'ite shrine, was carried out by a fighter it named as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Tunisi (the Tunisian).            

Officials initially put the death toll from the bomb at 23, but hospital and morgue officials said on Wednesday morning it had risen to 33, with more than 50 wounded.            

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Baghdad, including several blasts on Saturday which killed 27 people.               

Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State swept through most of Iraq's Sunni Muslim provinces towards Baghdad last month, their advance halted less than 100 km from the capital.             

Government forces launched a counter-offensive a week ago to recapture Tikrit, home city of executed former president Saddam Hussein, but withdrew within hours after coming under fierce onslaught from the militants.                

On Wednesday morning an air strike by government forces on a civilian neighborhood in the town of Sharqat, north of Tikrit, killed 12 people, a hospital source said.               

Security forces also found the bodies of eight Iraqi soldiers 3 km (2 miles) outside Samarra, the most northern city under full government control.           


AP/REUTERS