BAGHDAD (Anadolu) – Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks with top Iraqi officials on ways to form a government and end a crippling political crisis in the country.
He held phone calls with Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, Nouri al-Maliki, leader of the State of Law Coalition, and Khamis al-Khanjar, leader of the al-Azm Front, al-Sadr’s office said in a statement on Thursday evening.
Discussions focused on resolving the crisis of government formation and other “important issues related to the current situation in Iraq,” the statement said.
Owing to differences between various political forces, Iraq has been unable to form a new government since last October’s contested parliamentary elections.
A spokesman for the State of Law Coalition confirmed that al-Maliki, a former Iraqi prime minister, received a phone call from al-Sadr to discuss ways to “end the current crisis.”
Talks between al-Sadr and al-Maliki signal a remarkable development in efforts to finalize a government, since the Shia cleric, who leads the biggest parliamentary bloc, has in the past refused to support any government that includes al-Maliki.
In another development in the country, at least seven Daesh terrorists were killed in Iraqi airstrikes in Kirkuk and Salahudin provinces, including a local leader of the terrorist group, security sources said on Friday.
In the northern Kirkuk province, Iraqi security forces conducted two airstrikes on Thursday night on a Daesh hideout in the al-Dibis area northwest of the namesake provincial capital Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
The airstrikes killed four Daesh terrorists, including the local chief, it said.
Over the past few months, Iraqi forces have carried out deadly attacks to crackdown growing activities by Daesh remnants.
The security situation in Iraq has improved after Iraqi forces defeated the Daesh in 2017. Yet the group’s remnants have since melted into urban centers, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent terrorist attacks against security forces and civilians.