BAGHDAD: Iraqis may hope tough-talking Prime Minister-designate Jawad Al-Maliki can fulfil his promises to unite the shattered country, but are still awaiting a key ingredient from the Shia leader — a plan.

Baghdad awoke on Sunday to the familiar boom of a mortar bomb, which killed five civilians near the ministry of defence a day after the president stood up in parliament and asked Maliki to form a cabinet.

One Iraqi newspaper said merely breaking the four-month deadlock over the government was a great feat. “At last the impasse over the prime minister has come to its end and released its grip from the necks of Iraqis,” said Al Bayyna Al-Jadidah.

Iraqis demoralised by bloody chaos will be hoping that Maliki can halt a slide towards civil war, but he has yet to lay out a strategy for improving security, rescuing the economy or distributing power fairly among rival communities.

Washington hailed Maliki’s appointment as a breakthrough and said it could work with him, but many hurdles lie ahead.

Sunnis will expect Maliki to clean up the Shia-run interior ministry, which they say condones militia death squads, a charge it denies.

If Maliki is too lenient, Sunnis are likely to accuse him of pursuing sectarian policies. Too tough and he risks alienating members of his Shia majority.

Maliki must gingerly navigate around sectarian minefields while maintaining the image of a strong, decisive leader.

The senior Dawa party leader has already raised the explosive issue of militias tied to leading political parties, including those within his Shia Alliance.

Maliki said publicly after he was endorsed on Saturday that militias should be merged with the armed forces — a stance likely to reassure US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has said party militias are killing more Iraqis than guerillas.

US military officials estimate the Shia Badr Brigade numbers between 5,000 and 7,000. Sunni leaders accuse the militia of running death squads. It denies the charge.

Maliki’s allies in the interim government drew tough criticism on their human rights record, especially after US troops discovered an interior ministry bunker holding 173 mostly Sunni prisoners showing signs of malnutrition and torture.

Accused by his opponents of having a sectarian outlook, the former exile will be closely scrutinised as he starts to crack down on guerillas in a new bid to stabilise Iraq and eventually see a US troop withdrawal.

Saleem Al-Jubouri, a law professor at Iraq’s Diyala University, identified Maliki’s challenges as occupation, regional interventions, militias and illegal detention centres.

“He must deal with all these cases. Only then can we say that he’s fit for the job,” Jubouri said.

Unlike other exiles who grabbed the media spotlight upon returning to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003, Maliki worked behind the scenes to shape postwar politics.

He helped draft the constitution, still a focus for communal divisions, and gained respect at the negotiating table.

Maliki took a hardline on guerillas, saying those who killed Iraqis should be executed, a measure that some say will only sabotage efforts to draw rebels into the political process.—Reuters