NEWS:Fresh attacks kill 17 Iraqis, 2 U.S. troops
Shiite alliance has lead over pro-U.S. PM Allawi in election returns
msnbc.msn.com
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:48 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents launched fresh attacks with bombs and bullets, killing 17 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers, as partial returns from the historic elections show a Shiite alliance with ties to Iran rolling up a strong lead over pro-U.S. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
More returns from the voting for the 275-member National Assembly were expected to be announced Saturday. They are expected to confirm a strong showing by the United Iraqi Alliance, which is endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric.
In the latest violence:
Four Iraqi National Guardsmen died in a roadside bombing early Saturday in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
The two American soldiers from Task Force Danger were killed in a roadside bombing Friday night near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Saturday. The military had said a second roadside blast in the same area killed two more American soldiers, but later said that report was wrong.
A member of the Baghdad city council, Abbas Hasan Waheed, was killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting, police said.
Assailants also killed a member of Iraq's intelligence service in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen overran a police station, killing five officers, police officials said.
The brother of the police chief for Mosul and the surrounding Ninevah province was kidnapped Saturday, police officials said.
The kidnapping came three days after the chief, Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Jubouri, had threatened to destroy rebel sanctuaries if insurgents did not surrender their weapons within two weeks.
Three Iraqi National Guard soldiers were also killed in clashes in the city of Tal Afar on Friday night, hospital officials said.
Early Saturday, a colleague of an Italian journalist abducted in Iraq said she received a call from the woman's mobile phone. Giuliana Sgrena, 56, was seized by gunmen Friday near Baghdad University.
Meantime, Associated Press Television News obtained video footage Saturday from the Islamic Army of Iraq, showing a militant firing a shoulder-fired missile at what appears to be a C-130 transport plane flying at a low altitude. The plane's crew fired flares and the missile veered away from the aircraft's rear without hitting it.
It wasn't clear where or when the footage was recorded.
Radio journalist Barbara Schiavulli, who received the call from Sgrena's phone, heard no voices but only Arab music playing in the background, said Cristiana Tomei, a colleague of Schiavulli's speaking in Rome.
A Web site posting in the name of the Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, but Italian officials said they were not convinced the statement was genuine.
Sgrena is the second Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq, and at least the ninth Italian seized here in recent months. French journalist Florence Aubenas, who works for the daily newspaper Liberation, disappeared Jan. 5 in Baghdad.
Also Saturday, an Iraqi police commander said 11 of his officers were missing after their convoy was ambushed this week in a western Baghdad suburb. Insurgents killed five policemen and an Iraqi National Guard major in the Thursday attack.
In the northern city of Mosul, the bodies of three unidentified Iraqis who had been shot in the head were found on the streets of the city's eastern sector, police said. No other details were available.
Early returns show Shiites in lead
The violence is continuing as election officials count ballots from Sunday's national election -- the first since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
Early returns point to a historic shift in power from the Sunni Arab minority to the Shiites, believed to comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. Several key figures on the Shiite ticket spent years in exile in Iran. Al-Sistani himself is Iranian-born although he has lived most of his life in Iraq.
No turnout figures have been released, but it appears that many Sunni Arabs stayed away from the polls, either out of fear of rebel reprisals or because of opposition to an election held under U.S.-led military occupation. By contrast, Shiites and Kurds turned out in large numbers.
Adding to the uncertainty, complaints are surfacing over alleged voting irregularities mainly in Sunni areas. And some Sunni clerics are challenging the legitimacy of the parliament and government that will emerge from Sunday's election.
In figures released by the election commission Friday, more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted so far went to the Alliance. The faction headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite, trailed with about 18 percent -- or more than 579,700 votes.
The partial returns were from 10 mostly southern provinces that are predominantly Shiite, and the Alliance had been expected to win big there. |
