Shafaq News/ Sunni parties are wrangling over the defense portfolio in Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani's cabinet with three front-runners vying for the post, a parliamentary source familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

The sovereign Ministry in al-Sudani's cabinet has pit the Sunni al-Siyada and al-Azm blocs in a tense competition, the source said.

"B

Shafaq News/ Ongoing discord over the sovereign portfolios delays the formation of Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani's incoming cabinet, a leading figure in the Shiite Coordination Framework said on Saturday.

"All the parties and movements are involved in this ongoing dispute," al-Hekmah movement's Raheem al-Abboudi told Shafaq News Agency, "it revolves

Shafaq News/ A group of unidentified assailants reportedly killed a leading figure in Hadi al-Ameri's Badr Organization in the east of the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad, on Saturday.

The victim, Shiite cleric Ali al-Azzari, was the head of the Doctrine division at al-Rusafa's third branch of the Iran-back Shiite organization.

Shafaq News/ The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is eying half of the Kurds' seatings in Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani's cabinet, albeit it already retained the presidency of Iraq, lawmaker Karwan Yarwis said.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Yarwis said, "the Kurds have four posts in the lineup, two of which will be handled by the PUK."

The PUK