As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections was a setback in his recent attempt at political rehabilitation.
Oil minister Ibrahim Mohamed Bahr al-Uloum was put on a mandatory, monthlong leave. He had threatened to resign over the government’s recent decision to increase gasoline prices sharply, a move that has outraged motorists and sparked attacks on gas stations and fuel convoys.
Violence has worsened across Iraq since the elections, including Friday when a U.S. soldier was killed by an improvised bomb south of Baghdad and a second died from small-arms fire in Fallujah.
The latest deaths bring the U.S. military death toll to 841 in 2005, five short of the figure for 2004, The Associated Press reported. In all, 2,178 American service members have died in the nearly three-year conflict, according to an AP count.
In other violence, at least 15 people were killed in shootings, mortar attacks and a suicide car bombing in Baghdad. In the worst incident, police said nine people were killed in a drive-by shooting–apparently because they were drinking alcohol in public.
Threats by insurgents seizing on the unpopularity of the gasoline price increase led to a shutdown this month of the country’s most productive oil refinery, in Baiji, north of Baghdad.
Assim Jihad, an Oil Ministry spokesman, said the action would cost $20 million a day until the refinery reopened. Meanwhile, foul winter weather has halted oil exports from the southern city of Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only major seaport.
“If these issues are not solved soon, the country will be facing an uncontrollable situation,” Jihad said. “Dr. Chalabi will be here for the short term, but this will need to be solved by the new government, by the Ministry of Defense and by the coalition forces.”
Chalabi, whose government portfolio already includes heading the country’s electrical commission and overseeing security for the oil infrastructure such as refineries and pipelines, will take the reins of Iraq’s only major industry.
He had briefly led the Oil Ministry earlier this year while the current government was being assembled.
Jihad suggested that al-Uloum would probably resign rather than return, meaning Chalabi’s appointment would last until the parties that prevailed in the recent elections form a new government. Negotiations toward that end continued Friday.
