The Hindu : Front Page : 36 killed in Iraqi poll violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

36 killed in Iraqi poll violence

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, JAN. 30 . Amid violence that claimed at least 36 lives, the turnout in Iraq's controversial elections has been uneven with few people turning out to vote in the Sunni-dominated areas. Larger numbers made an appearance at polling stations in the northern and southern parts of the country.

Nine suicide bombers unleashed a wave of attacks targeting polling stations in the eastern, western and central parts of Baghdad, killing at least 12 persons. A mortar attack in the Shia-dominated Sadr city killed four persons while four more died in and around the capital. Explosions were also reported from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which has a mixed population of Sunni Arabs and Kurds. A British C-130 Hercules transport plane crashed northwest of the capital but there was no word on casualties.

Despite the higher turnout, a bomb went off outside a school which served as a polling station in the Shia stronghold of Basra in southern Iraq. The group led by the Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, claimed in an Internet statement that 13 of its suicide bombers had carried out a string of attacks against election centres in Iraq and launched 30 rockets inside Baghdad's high security Green Zone.

72 per cent turnout

Later in the evening, Iraq's electoral commission told a news conference 90 minutes before polls closed that the turnout was estimated at 72 per cent with 90 per cent or more in some Shia areas. However, the top U.N. electoral adviser, Carlos Valenzuela, offered a more restrained assessment, saying the turnout appeared to be high in many areas but that it was too early to make a definite prediction.

Prior to the elections, Carina Perelli, who heads the U.N. electoral assistance division, had accused American troops of interfering in the polls. "The U.S. military has been extremely overenthusiastic in trying to help out with these elections," she said. "We have been basically saying that they should try to minimise their involvement as this is an Iraqi process." The series of attacks took place despite the heavy presence of around 300,000 Iraqi and American troops that have been deployed around polling stations.

Streets deserted

Iraqi militant organisations, including Mr. Zarqawi's group had warned people to stay indoors or face deadly attacks, while major Sunni political groups had issued a poll boycott call. Streets in the central Sunni cities of Fallujah, Samarra and Ramadi were deserted and few polling stations were open. In Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, only seven persons showed up in the first two hours of voting, the Associated Press reported.

Mosul was also desolate, despite American troops and Iraqi soldiers using loudspeakers to announce the locations of polling sites and exhorting people to vote. The province's deputy escaped an assassination attempt but his bodyguard was killed. A gun battle between resistance fighters and American troops also broke out in the western part of the city. West of Mosul, in the town of Tal Afar, at least eight persons were wounded in clashes between guerillas and security forces.

An opinion poll conducted by the U.S.-based Zogby International predicted that only nine per cent of Sunnis were expected to participate in today's election. As expected, polling was significant in the Shia cities of Basra, Najaf and Karbala, where the United Iraqi Alliance, which has the "blessings" of the top Shia spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, is expected to do well.

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