Iraqi justice minister resigns

And a suicide car bomb targeting day labourers killed two people and wounded 11 in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 70km south of Kirkuk Abbas Amin, the local police chief, said.

 

In the largely Shia town of Suweira, south of Baghdad, three civilians were killed and seven wounded in a roadside bomb explosion as shoppers were busy making weekend purchases, police said.

 

Minister resignation

 

Sectarian violence has remained at ferocious levels despite a US-Iraqi security sweep that is in its seventh week.

 

Amid the attacks, Hashim al-Shibli told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he had tendered his resignation from the post of justice minister after differences in political and economic policy in cabinet became insurmountable.

 

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Al-Shibli was elected to government in December 2005 as part of the secular coalition, the Iraqi National List.

 

He told the Associated Press that he would continue to act as justice minister while awaiting the cabinet’s response.

 

Al-Shibli has been involved in a dispute over the cabinet’s recent endorsement of a decision to relocate and compensate thousands of Arabs who moved to Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city with large oil reserves, during an “Arabisation” campaign in the 1980s.

 

The Iraqi National List and several Sunni legislators have objected to the decision, saying it fails to address key issues, including property claims.

 

Tal Afar toll

 

Massive attacks have killed hundreds across Iraq this week, with one of the worst being a double lorry bombing in the northwestern city of Tal Afar.

 

The Iraqi interior ministry said on Saturday that the final death toll from the attack was 152. Officials had previously put the toll at 85.

 

The interior ministry said the number of wounded was 347.