Iraqi official: Banned candidates can take seats, possibly overcoming major election hurdle

Iraq official: Banned candidates can take seats

BAGHDAD — The head of a committee tasked with vetting candidates for ties to Saddam Hussein’s regime says an appeals court has overturned a ban on nine winning candidates from the parliamentary election.

The decision removes a major hurdle for the candidates to take their seats, and clears the way for the formation of the next government.

The decision by the so-called Accountability and Justice Committee to ban the candidates, many who came from a Sunni-backed bloc, was perceived as an attempt to overturn election results that handed the Shiite prime minister a narrow loss.

The Shiite head of the committee, Ali al-Lami, said the court informed him that the appeals were accepted.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi police official says assailants wearing Iraqi military uniforms beheaded a Sunni cleric and displayed his head on an electricity pole in the town where he preached against al-Qaida.

The police official says four gunmen stormed the house of Abdullah Jassim Shakour Monday morning and beheaded him in the town of Sadiyah, north of Baghdad.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The cleric’s son Mohammed says the gunmen took his father into a room, killed him and walked away with his head.

Despite the killing last month of al-Qaida in Iraq’s two top leaders in a U.S.-assisted military operation, attacks blamed on the group have continued.