BAGHDAD, April 18 (UPI) -- Fighting broke out again between suspected Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Baghdad Tuesday amid a political crisis that has delayed the formation of a new government.
Witnesses said an hour-long gun battle erupted in the Sunni Adhamia neighborhood in northern Baghdad, the second in 48 hours, pitting Sunni gunmen against suspected Shiite rivals disguised in police uniforms.
There was no immediate word on possible casualties. A similar clash also occurred Monday night in Maamoun neighborhood, also a Sunni stronghold, in the western part of the Iraqi capital, during which automatic rifles and other light weapons were used.
Meanwhile, the cabinet crisis persisted as members of the majority Shiite Coalition bloc in parliament demanded the appointment of controversial outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to form the new government.
Legislator Sami Askari, speaking on behalf of the resisting MP's, said, "the Coalition is officially committed to the nomination of Ibrahim Jaafari for the post of prime minister."
Askari said he believes that Coalition chief Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, "has informed the (Sunni) Reconciliation Front officially of that stance."
Moawed Abidi, also a member of the Coalition, stressed that Jaafari's nomination was "final and irreversible."
The Kurdish bloc in parliament as well as the Arab Sunni Reconciliation Front opposed Jaafari's nomination, further delaying the formation of a badly-needed national unity and reconciliation government.
