Wednesday, April 6, 2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) - Iraq's transitional National Assembly chose a president and two vice presidents Wednesday in a televised session reportedly watched by ousted dictator Saddam HusseinThe 275-member body elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as president. Adel Abdel Mahdi, a Shia, and Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni, were elected as his two deputies.

The election was largely symbolic. The three had been agreed upon in negotiations in recent weeks.

Talabani -- longtime leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- was to be sworn in as Iraqi president during Wednesday's session.

Abdul Mahdi was finance minister in the outgoing government, and tribal leader al-Yawar was the previous interim president.

The 275-member assembly selected its speaker on Sunday.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite from the Dawa Party, eventually is expected to become prime minister.

Saddam and his 10 associates, all facing war crimes trials and long blacked out from seeing or reading the news, were allowed to watch a TV feed of the assembly meeting, Iraqi officials said.

It has not been confirmed how much of the assembly session the men actually watched.

"They will be seeing what's happening in Iraq for the first time since the fall of the regime," said Bakhtiar Amin, the country's interim human rights minister.

Saddam's former regime -- largely made up of Sunni Arabs -- persecuted Kurds and Shiites while in power.

Ahead of the assembly meeting, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a security warning to Americans in Iraq.

"There is an elevated risk of attacks by insurgents trying to disrupt these proceedings," the message said.

After choosing a new government -- which has been delayed by coalition negotiations after the January 30 elections -- the assembly will write a permanent constitution to be put to the voters.

A half-brother of Saddam is likely to be the first to face trial on human rights charges before the Iraqi Special Tribunal, Amin said.

Amin also said about 6,000 people were killed following Saddam's ouster in 2003 "at the hands of terrorist groups," citing the widespread release of criminals from jails before the U.S.-led invasion.

There has been no official figure for the overall number of Iraqis killed since the conflict began, but some nongovernment estimates have ranged from 10,000 to 30,000.

Violence continues
Even as the political process inched forward, the violence continued with at least four U.S. soldiers, an Iraqi soldier, an Iraqi civilian and eight insurgents killed in separate incidents.

Two car bombs exploded at nearly the same time Tuesday morning in Baghdad, killing two people and injuring at least six others, police and military officials said.

A bomb in an abandoned taxi struck a U.S. Army patrol in southern Baghdad's al-Doura neighborhood, a spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division said. A soldier was killed and four others were wounded.

In the second bombing, an Iraqi civilian was killed and two others were injured when a bomb in a parked car exploded as an Iraqi military convoy passed near a gas station in Amiriya on Baghdad's western outskirts, Iraqi police said. The blast damaged nearby homes and military vehicles.

South of Baghdad, up to four U.S. troops were wounded Tuesday when they came under fire from insurgents, according to Pentagon officials.

The troops called for close air support, and a U.S. Navy F-18 jet dropped at least one bomb on an insurgent position.


It marked the first time in weeks U.S. forces had to call for close air support to protect against an insurgent attack. The Pentagon said an unknown number of insurgents were killed or wounded.

The number of American dead in the Iraq war stands at 1,542.

In other violence, an Iraqi general working for the country's Interior Ministry was kidnapped Tuesday in Baghdad, authorities said.

Gen. Jalal Mohammed Salah is the commander of a mechanized armored brigade. No further details were available.

A battle between Iraqi and U.S. forces and insurgents Monday afternoon left two U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier dead in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

The firefight began when Iraqi army battalions conducting a cordon-and-search operation came under insurgent attack.

The insurgents used small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

Ground and air teams of the Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division, which is headquartered in New York state, moved in to provide support for the Iraqi forces.

The battle lasted until early evening before the insurgents abandoned their positions, a division spokesman said.

A U.S. Marine also died Monday in an explosion during combat in Anbar province, military officials said Tuesday.

U.S. forces killed eight insurgents and wounded a CBS stringer in separate incidents Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said.

The journalist, who was handling a video camera, was taken to a military hospital with minor wounds and is expected to recover, the military said.

"Regretfully the reporter was injured during the complex and volatile situation," a military statement said, adding that the incident is under investigation. A source said the journalist is an Iraqi.