| Global update |
Insurgents launch attacks
on Iraqi polling centers
BY ROBERT H. REID
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents
stepped up attacks Thursday against
polling centers across Iraq, killing at
least a dozen people, including a U.S.
Marine, in the rebel campaign to
frighten Iraqis away from participating
in this weekend’s election.
As part of an intensifying cam
paign of intimidation, an al-Qaida
affiliate led by Jordanian terror mas
termind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
posted a videotape on the Internet
showing the murder of a candidate
from the party of interim Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi.
The tape included a warning to
Allawi personally: “You traitor, wait
for the angel of death.”
To protect voters on Sunday, hun
dreds of American soldiers began
moving out of their garrison on the
western edge of Baghdad to take up
positions at smaller bases through
out the city to respond more quickly
to any election day attacks.
Sunni Muslim insurgents have
threatened to disrupt the balloting
when Iraqis choose a 275-member
National Assembly and governing
councils in the country’s 18
provinces. Voters in the Kurdish self
governing area of the north will
select a new regional parliament.
In the former rebel stronghold
of Fallujah, where opposition to the
balloting is strong, U.S. Marines
drove through the city Thursday,
urging people through loudspeakers
to turn out Sunday. Spokesman
lst.Lt. Lyle Gilbert said the Marines
were “encouraging people to
capitalize on this opportunity to ex
ercise their voice by voting in the
upcoming free elections.”
Iraqi newspapers also published
for the first time the names of some
7,000 National Assembly candidates,
many of whose identities had been
kept secret to protect them from
assassination.
The interim government will de
ploy an additional 2,500 troops to
help guard the elections, the Defense
Ministry said. A total of 300,000 Iraqi
and multinational troops will pro
vide security, with Iraq’s U.S.-trained
forces taking the lead role.
About 9,000 Iraqi troops also
are being dispatched to guard
r
Violence increases as election nears
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More than 11 Iraqis and one U.S.
Marine were killed Thursday in pre
election violence.
TURKEY
Tikrit
Civilian killed by
roadside bomb —
Samarra
Three Iraqi
civilians killed
by car bomb
SYRIA
JOR
Ramadi
Iraqi National Guard
soldier killed guarding
voting center
Kirkuk
Seven polling stations
attacked with mortars
and machine guns;
one policeman killed
Beiji
Car bomb near
U.S. base;no
casualties
Baqouba
Iraqi soldier
killed by car
bomb
IRAN
SAUDI ARABIA
0 50 mi
0 50 km
Mahmoudiya
Three Iraqis
killed in road
side bomb
Iskandariyah
Marine killed, five injured
in mortar attack
SOURCE: ESRI
AP
oil pipelines, which insurgents
repeatedly have targeted.
Iraq’s national security adviser,
Qassim Dawoud, acknowledged
that security remains shaky in
four provinces but expressed opti
mism that extensive security meas
ures would protect voters and
encourage turnout.
However, attacks were reported
Thursday in at least seven provinces,
including relatively peaceful Basra in
the south, where militants fired mor
tar shells at four schools designated
as polling stations.
U.S. troops and rebels also
exchanged fire Thursday on Haifa
Street in central Baghdad, witnesses
said.
One Marine was killed and five
others were wounded when insur
gents fired mortars at their
base near Iskandariyah, about 30
miles south of Baghdad in tense
Babil province.
Another three Iraqis were killed
and seven injured when a roadside
bomb missed a U.S. convoy in
Mahmoudiya, a religiously mixed
area of Babil province, hospital
officials said.
Most of the attacks occurred in
Salaheddin province in an area of the
Sunni triangle north and west of
Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi officials
have identified as one of the key
trouble spots. Three Iraqi civilians
were killed Thursday when a car
bomb exploded in Samarra, 60 miles
north of Baghdad.
Hours later, mortar shells fell
on a designated polling station
in Samarra, police said. Armed
men in Samarra blew up a school
administration building after first
ordering the staff to leave, police Lt.
Qassim Mohammed said. The de
stroyed building had been sched
uled to be a voting center Sunday.
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