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Bombs kill 4 on Iraq's 'Freedom Day'

Three years ago, U.S. Marines toppled statue of Saddam Hussein

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- On the third anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi authorities found the bodies of five men who appeared to be the latest victims of sectarian violence, and four civilians died in insurgent bomb blasts.

The fledgling Iraqi government, which is still bickering over the nominee for the nation's leader, had designated Sunday "Iraqi Freedom Day."

A few Iraqis celebrated the occasion, which marked the day U.S. Marines hauled down a statue of Hussein in Firdos Square. (Watch an Iraqi man recall the day the statue was felled -- 2:18)

"This is a dear day -- we got rid of the dictatorship," Fadhil Abul-Sebah told The Associated Press. "It doesn't mark the fall of Baghdad, it marks the fall of Saddam ... and the regime, because Baghdad will never fall."

Other Iraqis said the day marked the beginning of a U.S.-led occupation, the AP reported.

Also on Sunday, officials from the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance met over the selection of interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to keep the post, a spokesman for a party in the UIA bloc told CNN.

The spokesman said a three-member group will discuss al-Jaafari's nomination with the other political parties. Al-Jaafari, who has been criticized for his leadership in the interim government, has been nominated by the UIA to continue in that role for the next four years.

"The issue of prime minister is the one that's holding up things," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, told CNN's "Late Edition."

He said he hoped Iraqi lawmakers can reach a resolution "in the next day or two."

The UIA won a plurality in the December 15 parliamentary elections, but Iraqi leaders have been unable to form a government since then.

A large bloc of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secular politicians have been forcefully opposed to al-Jaafari, a Shiite. Any choice for prime minister must win approval from the parliament.

Kurdish leaders on Sunday officially informed the main UIA that their rejection of al-Jaafari is final, political sources told news agency Reuters. The sources said the message was delivered by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

Al-Jaafari has also been scrutinized during rising sectarian violence in which Sunni Arabs have been blamed for attacks against Shiite mosques, and bodies turn up in the aftermath, often showing signs of torture.

Police sources said five more bodies were found in three neighborhoods of eastern Baghdad on Sunday.

There were also at least five attacks using homemade bombs in and south of the capital. Four civilians were killed, including one person on a minibus heading toward the large Sadr City district.

The removal of Hussein and the violence and unreliable basic services that followed have left residents of Baghdad with mixed emotions.

"Iraqis are pleased and displeased," soldier Qassim Hassan told AP. "They are pleased because they got rid of tyranny and dictatorship, but they are displeased because they went from bad to worse. The Iraqi street is seething between sadness and terrorism."

Other developments

Iraqi officials said they want Egypt President Hosni Mubarak to clarify comments he made Saturday on Al-Arabiya. Mubarak told the Arab satellite television network that Iraq is in the throes of civil war, and its majority Shiite population is under the sway of Iran, another Shiite-controlled nation. Meanwhile, the United Iraqi Alliance, the country's largest Shiite bloc, demanded that Mubarak apologize for his remarks.

The German government told CNN Sunday it had received a new videotape showing two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq in January. The video is the fourth showing the pair, who have been identified as Rene Braunlich and Thomas Nitzschke. "Help us, please help us," one of them says in the new video obtained by The Associated Press. In previous videos, insurgents have threatened to kill the men unless the German government cuts ties with Iraq and German companies pull out of the country.

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