Iraq's Shia leaders, divided over their choice for the next prime minister, cancelled a much-awaited parliament session today as rebel attacks across the country left at least 31 people dead.
The parliament session had initially been scheduled for tomorrow with hopes of breaking the impasse to forming a national unity government among Iraq's Shia, Sunnis and Kurds four months after a landmark election.
The deadlock has coincided with a surge in violence that has raised fears the country is on the edge of an all out civil war, with its political leaders, bound by religious and ethnic loyalties, utterly incapable of forging ahead.
