Baghdad, 17 March 2020, TON: Iraq's president named ex-Najaf city governor Adnan Zurfi as the new prime minister, tasked with ruling a country hit by street protests, military unrest and now the coronavirus pandemic.

The nomination came hours after two rockets hit an Iraqi military base hosting US-led coalition and NATO troops, the third such attack within a week, without causing casualties according to military officials.

Lawmaker Zurfi, 54, is the former governor of the Shiite holy city of Najaf and once belonged to the Dawa party, the longtime opposition force to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein who was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.

President Barham Saleh said he had nominated Zurfi to replace outgoing premier Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in December, at a time when Iraq has been rocked by an unprecedented wave of anti-government rallies. Zurfi, a member of the Nasr coalition led by ex-PM Haider al-Abadi, now has 30 days to pull together a government, which must then be confirmed by parliament.

His nomination comes at an especially tumultuous time for Iraq, which has been battered by almost six months of street protests, collapsing oil prices, the novel coronavirus outbreak and the renewed rocket attacks which Washington blames on pro-Iranian forces.

A senior government source told that political factions had intensely debated names for days, seeking a "non-confrontational" figure in an attempt to preserve the status quo. Iraq has since 2003 been governed under a sectarian power-sharing system characterised by intense horsetrading between sects and parties. An earlier nominee, Mohammad Allawi, had failed to form a cabinet by March 2, triggering a new 15-day deadline for Saleh that was set to end late Tuesday. The president's announcement came just hours after a new pre-dawn rocket attack targeted foreign troops stationed in Iraq.

Two rockets hit the Besmaya base about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Baghdad, according to the Iraqi military, the US-led coalition and NATO, all of which have forces stationed there. The Iraqi military made no mention of casualties and a NATO press officer told that  none of its forces were hurt. The past week has seen a renewed spike in rockets hitting Iraqi bases hosting foreign forces, with three coalition troops killed on March 11 in an attack on the Taji air base, which was targeted again on March 14. Iraq's parliament, which sees the US strikes as a violation of its sovereignty, has voted to oust all foreign forces -- but the paralysis gripping the political class has slowed the implementation of the decision.