Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 1 June 2004 — A dispute between Iraq’s Governing Council and US occupation authorities delayed the choice of the president of a new transitional government and the formation of the new Cabinet to take power June 30.

A council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US overseer of Iraq Paul Bremer, and special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi were exerting pressure on the US-appointed group to choose former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni councilman.

However, the current council chairman, civil engineer Ghazi Al-Yawar, was believed to be the choice of most of the 22 members.

Council members conferred Sunday but postponed a session set for yesterday.

Meanwhile, US troops clashed yesterday with Shiite militiamen in fighting that killed two Americans and strained a cease-fire called last week around the cities of Kufa and Najaf.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near US coalition headquarters, killing at least four Iraqis and injuring 25.

Two other American soldiers died over the weekend in separate attacks, the US military said. The four Iraqis killed in the car bombing included the sister of two former Iraqi presidents, according to neighbors and a relative.

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast in Baghdad’s Harithiyah district, about 500 meters from where the head of the Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, was assassinated in a car bombing May 17. It was not clear whether yesterday’s bombing was caused by a suicide attacker.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said four people were killed and 25 wounded. The blast showered the area with debris and bits of human flesh. At least one body lay on the street, covered with plastic sheets. US troops fired into the air to disperse the crowds.

“It felt like our house was lifted into the air and came down with a bang,” said resident Faleh Hassan.

Neighbors and a close relative said one of the dead was Sabiha Aref, 72, sister of Abdel-Salam Aref and Abdel-Rahman Aref, both of whom served as president in succession between 1963 and 1968. She was killed by flying glass while cooking lunch in her kitchen, the relative said on condition he not be named.

Hours later, US troops blocked a major road that leads to the Green Zone, a security area around US headquarters in central Baghdad, to defuse a second car bomb.

Shiite leaders, meanwhile, called on US forces to halt “aggressive patrolling” around Kufa and Najaf to shore up a peace accord that is rapidly unraveling there, 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.

The fighting in Kufa broke out Sunday night and lasted until early yesterday. Shiite attackers loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr ambushed a patrol with small arms fire, killing one US soldier, and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank, killing another American, according to the US military.

At least one Iraqi was killed and eight injured, hospital officials said. Sadr’s militia often avoids taking its casualties to government hospitals for fear of arrest.

Shiite militiamen accused US troops of firing near the city’s main mosque, damaging its outer marble wall. The bodies of two slain militiamen lay on the mosque’s blood-soaked floor, covered with blankets.

“They have no respect for holy sites or for human rights,” said one fighter, who gave his name as Abu Sayf. “This is a violation of the truce.”

CNN, which has a reporter embedded with 1st Armored Division troops in Kufa, spoke of a “major firefight” that began when US soldiers tried to secure a police station. CNN quoted soldiers as saying it was the most intense fighting in the area in the past six weeks.

Sadr’s fighters took over in early April after occupation authorities cracked down, closing his newspaper, arresting a key lieutenant and announcing an arrest warrant against him for the murder of a rival cleric.

Under a deal Thursday with Shiite leaders, Sadr agreed to remove his fighters from the streets and begin talks with the clerical hierarchy over the future of his militia and the warrant against him. US troops agreed to halt offensive operations around Najaf and Kufa. However, daily clashes since then have threatened to scuttle the deal.