BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers elected a veteran Kurdish politician on Thursday to replace long-serving Jalal Talabani as the country’s new president in the latest step toward forming a new government, but a series of attacks killed at least 73 people across the country.
Also Thursday, militants in Mosul destroyed a Muslim shrine traditionally said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, underscoring the overwhelming challenges facing the divided nation.
Fouad Massoum, 76, one of the founders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party led by Talabani, accepted the position of president after winning a two-thirds vote in Parliament, noting the ‘‘huge security, political and economic tasks’’ facing the next government.
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The next step in Iraq’s political transition will be for Massoum to select a candidate for prime minister who will try to form a new government.
Nouri al-Maliki’s bloc won the most seats in April elections, but the current prime minister has faced mounting pressure to step aside, with critics accusing him of monopolizing power and alienating the country’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities, contributing to the latest unrest. Maliki has, however, vowed to remain in the post he has held since 2006.
Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops amid the blitz offensive launched last month by the Al Qaeda breakaway Islamic State group, which captured large swaths of the country’s west and north, including Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul.
The militants have also seized a huge chunk of territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border, and declared a self-styled caliphate in the territory.
As Massoum was named president, the militants blew up the revered Muslim shrine in Mosul, several residents of the city said.
The militants first ordered everyone out of the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, then blew it up, the residents said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of their own safety. Several nearby houses were also damaged, they said.
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The mosque was built on an archeological site dating to the 8th century BC and is said to be the burial place of Jonah, who in stories from in both the Bible and Koran is swallowed by a whale.
In Baghdad, a double car bombing ripped through the busy commercial district of Karradah as people gathered at dusk to break their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan, killing 21 people and wounding 33, unofficial police and hospital representatives said.
Earlier in the day, militants fired mortar shells on an army base holding suspects facing terrorism charges in Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad.
The post of Iraq’s president — previously held by the ailing Talabani — is largely symbolic but Thursday’s election marked a step toward achieving consensus among political rivals.
Under an unofficial agreement reached after the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq’s presidency is held by a Kurd, the prime minister is Shi’ite, and Parliament’s speaker is Sunni.