BAGHDAD, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nine Katyusha rockets landed Thursday on the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad before a scheduled parliament session to elect a new president for the country.
The Joint Operations Command said in a statement that the rocket barrage wounded some security members and civilians in the zone, which houses key government buildings, including the parliament, residences of Iraqi top officials, and foreign embassies.
The attack came as the parliament was preparing to convene to elect a new president for the country, so as to begin the formation of the new government a year after the Oct. 10 parliamentary elections last year.
On Sept. 28, unidentified militants fired three rockets on the Green Zone when the parliament resumed its sessions and decided to reject the resignation of parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi.
Political tensions in Iraq have escalated in the past months between the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the parliamentary elections in 2021, and their rivals of the Shiite parliamentary parties in the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.
Al-Sadr demanded to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, but his demands were rejected by the CF parties, which became the largest bloc after al-Sadr ordered his followers to withdraw from the parliament in June.
Over the past months, persistent disputes between the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new government, which requires a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the Iraqi constitution. ■
