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Iraq

As divisions surface, Shiites turn to secret ballot plan

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Top Shiite politicians failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on their nominee for prime minister, shifting the two-man race to a secret ballot and exposing divisions in the winning alliance.

After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, an alliance leader.

The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.

Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party's platform is conservative.

Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.

A secular Shiite, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella for groups that included Iraqi exiles, Kurds and Shiites. Much of the intelligence his group supplied on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs failed to pan out.

Al-Jaafari was considered the leading contender Wednesday, though Chalabi's aides said their man had enough votes to win.

Both candidates were expected to present their political agendas to alliance members before the secret vote, al-Youshaa said. The 140 lawmakers who will represent the alliance in the National Assembly, plus eight allied lawmakers, will decide who will be prime minister, al-Youshaa said.

In other news:

--A U.S. soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Tuesday in western Iraq, a soldier died of a noncombat injury Wednesday at a base near Tikrit and four soldiers died in vehicle accidents, the military announced.

--The bodies of eight Iraqis described as collaborators with U.S. forces were found in a desert area north of Baghdad.

ROME - A video of an Italian journalist kidnapped in Baghdad pleading for her life aired on national television in Rome Wednesday, the day the upper house of Parliament debated and passed a measure to renew funding for an Italian military force in Iraq.

Giuliana Sgrena, a correspondent for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was shown sitting in front a blank wall, close to tears, as she appealed to the Italian government to withdraw its 3,000-member military contingent from Iraq.

"I beg you, put an end to the occupation. I beg the Italian government and the Italian people to put pressure on the government to withdraw," she said in Italian, pressing her hands together as if in prayer. Sgrena, 56, was seized in Baghdad on Feb. 4.

"I beg you to help me. I beg my family to help me and all those who stood with me to oppose the war and the occupation," said Sgrena, who then began to cry. An offstage voice was heard. She glanced at the person and then delivered her message in French. On the screen was Arabic script for "Mujaheddin Without Borders," a previously unknown group.

Sgrena's videotaped plea was the lead news item across Italy. The tape arrived at the offices of Associated Press Television News on the day of the parliamentary session, but it was not clear whether the kidnappers timed its release to coincide with the vote. The Senate voted to keep Italian troops in Iraq until at least the end of 2005.

Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told reporters that Italy's commitment in Iraq "will not be canceled by the political content" of Sgrena's appeal. "I tell the kidnappers that all the Italian people ask for her release, independent of our well-known position on Iraq."

--Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified February 17, 2005, 01:22:08]