Iraq swore in a new government on Tuesday, but five ministries and two deputy prime minister posts were left unfilled, highlighting the intense difficulties faced in forming a united leadership. The ceremony, inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, came on another day of violence, with US forces battling insurgents in the western city of Ramadi and near the border with Syria. Two US fighter jets also went missing overnight.The government’s inauguration came nearly a week after the cabinet was unveiled and more than three months after historic elections, which at the time were hailed as a success that could lead to a breakthrough against the insurgency.Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari failed to name permanent ministers to the oil, defence, industry, electricity and human rights portfolios, and two of four deputy prime Minister jobs were also left empty. The problems have been caused by disputes over how to allocate ministries to the Sunni minority, which largely failed to vote, but which all parties want to see represented.US search teams found the body of a US Marine pilot whose F-18 crashed in Iraq, but a second pilot and warplane were still missing, the US Military said. The two Hornet jets disappeared late on Monday while flying night missions from the carrier Carl Vinson. A military spokesman said there were no indications the planes had come down under hostile fire. It was not clear if they might have collided during a sand and lightning storm that hit central Iraq around the time they went missing.At least 14 suspected insurgents were killed when US forces and Iraqi National Guardsmen battled fighters in the guerrilla stronghold of Ramadi, the US military said and suggested they may have been foreign fighters.US forces also killed 12 suspected insurgents in a firefight and bombing on Monday in the militant town of Qaim, a trouble spot further West from Ramadi, near the Syrian border. The military said six US soldiers were wounded in the fight against suspected members of Al-Qaeda’s wing in Iraq, headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.The US military also said they have intercepted a letter intended for al-Zarqawi, which praised him for being “a thorn in the mouth of the Americans”, but also addresses low morale amongst his followers. —Reuters
