By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A bloc comprising Iraq's biggest Shi'ite parties is close to nominating a prime minister, the deputy speaker of parliament said on Monday, directly challenging Nuri al-Maliki who has refused to give up his bid for a third term. Haider al-Abadi's comments in a tweet came after police sources said special forces and Shi'ite militias loyal to Maliki had been deployed in strategic areas of Baghdad after he made a defiant speech on television suggesting he would not cave in to pressure to drop his bid for another term. Abadi is one of the people that has been mentioned as a possible successor to Maliki. Maliki accused Iraq's Kurdish President Fouad Masoum of violating the constitution by missing a deadline for him to ask the biggest political bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a government.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maliki-defiant-special-forces-deploy-baghdad-005959923–finance.html

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