Reply #15: Seven die in poll attacks [View All]

[struggle4progress]

30/01/2005 09:41 - (SA)

Baghdad - Iraqis voted on Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century as insurgents made good on threats of violence, launching a deadly suicide bombing and mortar strikes at polling stations across Iraq.

Just hours after polls opened, at least seven people were killed, including two policemen. <snip>

Despite the heavy attacks, turnout was brisk in some Shiite Muslim and mixed Shiite-Sunni neighbourhoods, both in Baghdad and in southern cities like Basra.

But the polls were deserted in heavily Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra west and north of Baghdad. In restive Mosul in the north, American troops and Iraqi soldiers roamed the streets, using loudspeakers to announce the locations of polling sites and urge people to vote. But streets were deserted. <snip>

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1654670,00.html