BAGHDAD, June 10 — Iraq’s leading political blocs on Sunday agreed to replace the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud Mashhadani, a Sunni, after hearing accusations that his bodyguards assaulted a Shiite lawmaker as the speaker cursed him and then dragged him to the speaker’s office.
Four lawmakers and an aide confirmed the details of the skirmish and the effort to remove Mr. Mashhadani, including Saleem Abdullah, a member of Parliament and spokesman for Mr. Mashhadani’s bloc, the Iraqi Consensus Front.
Mr. Abdullah said the new speaker would probably be another Sunni Arab. “We are now in negotiations to find another candidate,” he said.
Mr. Abdullah said discussions about “how to arrange the exit” were not complete, suggesting that Mr. Mashhadani had not agreed to leave. On Sunday night, Mr. Mashhadani could not be reached for comment.
If carried out, however, the move would come at an already difficult time for Iraq’s largest elected body. Mr. Mashhadani’s tenure, which began after the December 2005 election, has been characterized by personal volatility, sectarian division among members and legislative inertia.
The 275-member Parliament has yet to produce a law establishing how to share revenues from the country’s oil, a plan for local elections or any of the other so-called benchmark laws that American officials have been demanding. Frequently, attendance has fallen short of a quorum, and in April a suicide bomber killed one lawmaker and wounded 22 people in the Parliament’s cafeteria.
The scuffle on Sunday was the third time this year that Mr. Mashhadani or members of his staff have been accused of physically assaulting members of Parliament. Last month, Mr. Mashhadani slapped a Sunni lawmaker who questioned his decision to rush out of a legislative session in disgust after a Shiite colleague questioned the government’s sensitivity to the plight of displaced Shiite families.
In that instance, Mr. Mashhadani apologized and kept his job. This time, Kurdish, Shiite and some Sunni leaders said they would no longer tolerate Mr. Mashhadani’s short temper and thuggish approach.
Fariyad Muhammad, the Shiite lawmaker who said he was assaulted, described what happened during a closed session of Parliament. Several members who were present, including at least one who said he witnessed parts of the skirmish, said that Mr. Muhammad said he was trying to enter the building Sunday morning when Mr. Mashhadani’s guards stopped and shoved him.
Mr. Muhammad, a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said the speaker soon appeared and shouted, “Damn you.” He said Mr. Mashhadani watched as his guards forcibly dragged him to the speaker’s section of the building.
The Shiite deputy speaker, Khalid al-Attiya, rushed to Mr. Mashhadani’s office to smooth over the dispute. But several members of Parliament, after hearing Mr. Muhammad’s account — delivered without Mr. Mashhadani present — said they had agreed to replace the speaker.
“It’s not just about what happened today,” said Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, a member of Mr. Muhammad’s party. “We exploded with anger because today’s actions were part of an accumulation of problems, one by one.”
Mr. Sagheer said Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, in a rare moment of unity, simply agreed that Mr. Mashhadani had lost the credibility to lead.
Mr. Mashhadani would still hold a seat in Parliament even if forced out as speaker.
Outside of Parliament, the conflicts were far more deadly.
In Tikrit, about 90 miles northwest of Baghdad, at least eight policemen were killed and 20 people were wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into a police station. Rescue workers worked feverishly into the evening to remove rubble to save policemen buried underneath.
One trapped officer, Salah al-Jibouri, said he used his cellphone while buried in the debris to call the other police units and tell them that a huge explosion had demolished the building.
In Tuz Khurmatu, east of Tikrit, a roadside bomb struck a convoy of Kurdish pesh merga forces, killing one soldier and wounding three others, as they drove north from Baghdad after patrolling the western neighborhoods of the capital.
The American military said one American soldier was killed, and another wounded, in southern Baghdad on Sunday during “combat operations.” A soldier was fatally shot and another one was wounded on Saturday in Diyala Province, the military said.
Clashes also broke out late Saturday between American forces and militiamen of the Mahdi Army, which is loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding 10 more, an Interior Ministry official said.
One resident, who declined to give his name, said American aircraft attacked the area for one hour, killing four civilians and destroying three houses. Later, he said, roadside bombs struck American armored vehicles, and 15 people were wounded in the ensuing early morning clash.
An American military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, disputed the account, saying the fighting began because men inside one of Mr. Sadr’s satellite offices attacked an American patrol with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He said the Americans called in helicopters for support, and no Americans were hurt.
Across western Baghdad, 16 bodies were found Sunday, the Interior Ministry reported. Two civilians were killed and two wounded by a sniper in southwest Baghdad. Three bombs in two southern Baghdad districts killed five civilians and wounded 15.
In Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, a suicide bomber collapsed a section of a bridge, wounding several American soldiers guarding the crossing, The Associated Press reported.
The Iraqi High Tribunal hearing the case of Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” said it deferred the verdict announcement until June 24. Mr. Majid, who oversaw the so-called Anfal campaign that killed tens of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s, is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Prosecutors have asked for the death penalty against him and four other defendants.
Reporting was contributed by Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi, Ahmad Fadam, Karim Hilmi and Muhanad Seloom from Baghdad.
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