Iraq’s president Barham Salih has appointed on Tuesday Adnan Zurfi, a pro-Western lawmaker and former governor of the holy Shia city of Najaf, as the next prime minister.
The move comes as the country has been hit by military unrest, anti-government protests and the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused 12 deaths and infected 133 people.
Al-Zurfi, 54, has 30 days to form his cabinet and put it to a vote of confidence in Iraq’s parliament. He was a member of the Dawa party, an opposition force to dictator Saddam Hussein who was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion. He has also spent years in the United States.
Al-Zurfi heads the Nasr parliamentary grouping of former PM Haider al-Abadi. He would replace caretaker PM Adel Abdul Mahdi, who quit in December following widespread demonstrations against a corrupt system.
On Tuesday, Iraq faced two separate rocket attacks. The first hit the Besmaya base near Baghdad, which hosts Iraq’s military, the US-led coalition fighting jihadists, and NATO. Another set of rockets landed near the Green Zone, where embassies including the US mission are based.
None of the attacks has been claimed, but the US blames many of them on the Iran-backed faction Kataeb Hezbollah.
Iraq names new US-backed PM as rockets hit base hosting foreign troops
EPA-EFE/AHMED JALIL
(FILE) - The building of US embassy compund are seen in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, Iraq, 31 December 2019 (reissued 27 January 2020). Iraqi Security Media Cell reported five Katyusha rockets hit the US embassy compound in the Green Zone, a heavily fortified area housing government and foreign diplomatic missions, while other media reports said that the attack destroyed a small restaurant inside the US embassy compound. No injuries were reported.
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