The Hindu : International : Polling stations blasted in Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

International

International

Polling stations blasted in Iraq

BAGHDAD, JAN. 27. Militants launched fresh attacks on Thursday in their campaign to undermine this weekend's national elections, blasting polling stations and killing at least a dozen people including one U.S. Marine. Another U.S. soldier died in an accident.

The attacks occurred after 30 U.S. Marines and one Navy sailor died in a helicopter crash in bad weather in the western desert. Six other U.S. troops were killed in ambushes on Wednesday — the deadliest single day for Americans since the Iraq war began nearly two years ago.

Attacks have increased in the run-up to Sunday's national elections, when Iraqis will choose a 275-member legislature and provincial councils across the country in the first balloting since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. Sunni Muslim militants have vowed to undermine the elections, fearing victory at the polls by the Shia Muslim majority.

The Marine was killed and five others injured during a mortar barrage on their base near Iskandariyah, about 50 km south of Baghdad. In Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops clashed with militants on Haifa street in the centre of the city, witnesses reported.

Sporadic clashes

Sporadic clashes also erupted in Samarra between U.S. troops and armed men, killing one Iraqi civilian and injuring another, Mohammed said.

In Kirkuk, militants attacked seven polling stations with mortar shells and machine guns and opened fire on a police patrol, killing one policeman, authorities said. A suicide car bomber struck a U.S. military convoy near the northern city of Beiji, witnesses said.

Another three Iraqis were killed and seven injured when a roadside bomb missed a U.S. convoy in Mahmoudiya, near Baghdad.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International