U.S. soldier killed in Mosul; Iraqi contractor gunned down west of Baghdad
By Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press, 2/4/2005 06:23
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq's turbulent northern city of Mosul, and an Iraqi contractor working with the American military was gunned down in a drive-by shooting Friday west of the Iraqi capital, U.S. and Iraqi reports said.
Officials from Iraq's electoral commission, meanwhile, were expected Friday to release more partial results from last weekend's historic elections. Incomplete returns announced Thursday from Baghdad and five southern provinces showed candidates backed by Shiite Muslim clergy had a strong lead in the race for seats in the National Assembly.
As the partial returns continue to be tallied in Baghdad, election officials also announced that they were investigating allegations of voting irregularities in Mosul and other areas. The complaints range from a shortage of ballots to polling stations that never opened because of the volatile security conditions.
Many of the complaints are emerging from areas of the country dominated by Sunni Arabs. Though no official turnout figures have been released, Iraq's Sunni minority appeared to have stayed away from the polls in large numbers either because of violence or calls for a boycott from clerics and politicians who objected to holding elections under a foreign occupation.
There are concerns that the Sunnis, who lost their privileged status in Iraq with the fall of Saddam Hussein's Sunni dominated regime, will be further alienated if few of their leaders join the 275-seat National Assembly and the resulting government. That could also add fuel to an insurgency that's largely driven by Sunni extremists.
Insurgents are launching new attacks across the country and battling American and Iraqi security troops in scattered clashes following the easing of security measures that had been in place to guard last weekend's elections. At least 32 people have been killed in violence since Wednesday night.
A U.S. military Stryker combat vehicle rolled over several anti-tank mines in the city of Mosul on Thursday, killing an American soldier and injuring another.
Fighting in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, has been heavy in the past three months, since rebels launched an uprising there that drove off nearly all of the city's Iraqi police force.
West of the capital on Friday, an Iraqi contractor was gunned down by assailants who pulled up next to his car on the dangerous desert highway running out to Baghdad International Airport.
The man was in charge of a road construction project inside the airport complex that was contracted by the American military, said Iraqi police Lt. Akram al-Zoubaie.
Also Friday, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy in downtown Baghdad, but caused no casualties, witnesses said.
Overnight in northern Baghdad, gunmen entered a Shiite mosque, ordered several guards to leave the building and then rigged it with explosives, area residents said. The blast blew a small hole in one wall of the Tawhid Mosque. Sunni Arab insurgents have targeted several Shiite mosques in bomb attacks in recent weeks.
In Iraq's west, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy passed on a highway near the city of Qaim, on the Syrian border. The blast damaged a Humvee, a witness said. The U.S. military had no immediate details.
The first partial returns from Iraq's national elections showed candidates from the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, a mostly Shiite coalition, dominating with about 1.1 million of the 1.6 million votes tallied so far from six of the country's 18 provinces.
The ballots were mostly from Shiite areas of the country, where the Alliance was expected to do well. The faction is backed by Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite cleric.
The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a U.S.-backed secular Shiite, trailed second with more than 360,500 votes from the six provinces.
But the returns from 10 percent of the country's polling sites were too small to indicate a national trend.
Shiites make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, and the al-Sistani-backed ticket had been expected to roll up such huge margins in the south that the other 110 candidate lists would have to struggle for votes in the rest of the country.
Shiites turned out in huge numbers, hoping to reverse decades of oppression under the country's former Sunni Arab rulers.
The National Assembly will chose a government and oversee key duties, including the drafting of a permanent constitution for the country.
Iraqis also voted from 18 provincial councils and a regional parliament for the autonomous Kurdish north.
By Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press, 2/4/2005 06:23
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq's turbulent northern city of Mosul, and an Iraqi contractor working with the American military was gunned down in a drive-by shooting Friday west of the Iraqi capital, U.S. and Iraqi reports said.
Officials from Iraq's electoral commission, meanwhile, were expected Friday to release more partial results from last weekend's historic elections. Incomplete returns announced Thursday from Baghdad and five southern provinces showed candidates backed by Shiite Muslim clergy had a strong lead in the race for seats in the National Assembly.
As the partial returns continue to be tallied in Baghdad, election officials also announced that they were investigating allegations of voting irregularities in Mosul and other areas. The complaints range from a shortage of ballots to polling stations that never opened because of the volatile security conditions.
Many of the complaints are emerging from areas of the country dominated by Sunni Arabs. Though no official turnout figures have been released, Iraq's Sunni minority appeared to have stayed away from the polls in large numbers either because of violence or calls for a boycott from clerics and politicians who objected to holding elections under a foreign occupation.
There are concerns that the Sunnis, who lost their privileged status in Iraq with the fall of Saddam Hussein's Sunni dominated regime, will be further alienated if few of their leaders join the 275-seat National Assembly and the resulting government. That could also add fuel to an insurgency that's largely driven by Sunni extremists.
Insurgents are launching new attacks across the country and battling American and Iraqi security troops in scattered clashes following the easing of security measures that had been in place to guard last weekend's elections. At least 32 people have been killed in violence since Wednesday night.
A U.S. military Stryker combat vehicle rolled over several anti-tank mines in the city of Mosul on Thursday, killing an American soldier and injuring another.
Fighting in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, has been heavy in the past three months, since rebels launched an uprising there that drove off nearly all of the city's Iraqi police force.
West of the capital on Friday, an Iraqi contractor was gunned down by assailants who pulled up next to his car on the dangerous desert highway running out to Baghdad International Airport.
The man was in charge of a road construction project inside the airport complex that was contracted by the American military, said Iraqi police Lt. Akram al-Zoubaie.
Also Friday, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy in downtown Baghdad, but caused no casualties, witnesses said.
Overnight in northern Baghdad, gunmen entered a Shiite mosque, ordered several guards to leave the building and then rigged it with explosives, area residents said. The blast blew a small hole in one wall of the Tawhid Mosque. Sunni Arab insurgents have targeted several Shiite mosques in bomb attacks in recent weeks.
In Iraq's west, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy passed on a highway near the city of Qaim, on the Syrian border. The blast damaged a Humvee, a witness said. The U.S. military had no immediate details.
The first partial returns from Iraq's national elections showed candidates from the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, a mostly Shiite coalition, dominating with about 1.1 million of the 1.6 million votes tallied so far from six of the country's 18 provinces.
The ballots were mostly from Shiite areas of the country, where the Alliance was expected to do well. The faction is backed by Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite cleric.
The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a U.S.-backed secular Shiite, trailed second with more than 360,500 votes from the six provinces.
But the returns from 10 percent of the country's polling sites were too small to indicate a national trend.
Shiites make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, and the al-Sistani-backed ticket had been expected to roll up such huge margins in the south that the other 110 candidate lists would have to struggle for votes in the rest of the country.
Shiites turned out in huge numbers, hoping to reverse decades of oppression under the country's former Sunni Arab rulers.
The National Assembly will chose a government and oversee key duties, including the drafting of a permanent constitution for the country.
Iraqis also voted from 18 provincial councils and a regional parliament for the autonomous Kurdish north.
posted by allanon at 7:02 AM
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