A government spokesman blamed technical difficulties for the absence of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi name from a presidential website and said the vice president’s presence will return in the coming days. Hashemi is on trial on charges of terrorism, which the vice president says is politically motivated. That trial, which opened yesterday, was postponed so the judge can listen to several witnesses.
Separately, M.P. Qassim Mohammed of the Kurdistan Alliance said that Maliki’s evasion of fully implementing the Arbil Agreement should be taken as evidence the prime minister is moving towards dictatorship. A deadline for addressing his failure to follow the 2010 agreement ends tomorrow. He now faces a possible "no confidence" vote from aggrieved members of the coalition government. Another Kurdish M.P., Latif Mustafa, criticized Maliki for avoiding question on implementing Article 140 of the constitution.
Meanwhile, 17 Iraqi bodies were discovered in several locations, while three Iraqis were injured in a blast in the capital.
Eleven mutilated or burned bodies were found in the greater Kirkuk region. Gunmen killed a Kurdish civilian.
Three beheaded bodies were found in Aziria. They may be part of a group of mutilated bodies found in the Kirkuk region.
In Mosul, the body of a woman who had been tortured and shot was found.
A pharmacist’s body was found in Shirqat.
Three construction workers were injured during a blast in Baghdad‘s Doura district.
