Stars and Stripes: Insurgents' threats keep Ramadi residents from voting

[lebkuchen]

RAMADI, Iraq — Security concerns, roadside bombs and a series of brief gunbattles kept most Ramadi citizens from participating in Sunday’s historic Iraqi elections.

One U.S. soldier was killed and at least two others injured by a roadside bomb around 3 a.m. Sunday, according to military officials. In another attack at noon, a Humvee patrolling less than 200 meters from a polling station was hit by another bomb, sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.

The Humvee crew all escaped with minor wounds, but the explosion touched off long bursts of machine-gun fire from Iraqi and American troops manning security positions at the nearby polling site, a large grammar school compound.

According to soldiers who were observing from a nearby rooftop position, the second roadside bomb was planted by a teenage boy who ran into the street and dropped a large plastic bag just moments before a U.S. patrol drove through.


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=26905

[merwin]

1. Yay for fair and free elections!

[jmcgowanjm]

2. The Humvee crew all escaped with minor wounds

We're Gods I tell you.

[leftchick]

3. "resounding success"!!!

said the idiot** occupying the WH!

[lebkuchen]

5. delete (self)

[leesa]

4. Oh, but everybody and their aunt voted. Yup, the truth will come slowly

leaking out...and of course it will be foreign "insurgents" mucking it up and not the Iraqi fighters against the occupation.