Against a backdrop of more violence Tuesday, Iraqi legislators appear to be moving closer to beginning work on drafting a permanent constitution for Iraq.
Shi'ite cleric Hummam Hammoudi says he has been chosen to head the 55-member drafting committee. Mr. Hammoudi is a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, which holds a slim majority in the national assembly.
He said a Kurdish legislator, Fouad Massoum, and a Sunni Arab lawmaker, Adnan al-Janabi, had been chosen to be his deputies.
However, parliament has not formally announced the positions.
The committee will have three months to draw up a permanent constitution acceptable to Iraq's political and religious communities. It will then go to a referendum in October.
Meanwhile, insurgents continued their efforts to disrupt the new government. Officials say a car bomb explosion in central Baghdad killed two civilians and three U.S. soldiers.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP and AP.
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