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Iraq: Al-Zarqawi lieutenants arrested
Iraqi expatriates vote in countries around the globe
Friday, January 28, 2005 Posted: 5:46 AM EST (1046 GMT)
(CNN) -- As Iraqi expatriates in countries around the globe began voting Friday morning in the first democratic elections in almost 50 years, an Iraqi official said two "important leading members" of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group had been arrested.
The arrests were announced by Kasim Daoud, the country's minister of state for national security. Daoud said one of those arrested was in charge of the al-Zarqawi group's Baghdad operations.
The arrests came on January 17 and on Thursday, but Daoud said he did not want to announce them until after campaigning for elections had ended to avoid "misleading conclusions."
Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for numerous car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq.
Although the voting in Iraq doesn't start until Sunday, more than 280,000 expatriates in 14 countries -- many of whom fled during Saddam Hussein's regime -- are eligible to vote over a three-day period beginning Friday.
The largest single contingent of expatriate voters is in Iran, with more than 60,000 registered. About 31,000 are registered each in Sweden and Britain; more than 25,000 are registered each in Germany and the United States.
The first to cast ballots were in Australia, where about 11,000 expatriates are registered.
In Sydney, Shimon Haddad boasted to CNN that he was the first Iraqi in the world to vote, saying it was a "very happy and exciting day" for Iraqis in the country.
Haddad, manager of the city's biggest temporary polling station, said he took the opportunity to vote just before the polls opened at 7 a.m. (3 p.m. ET Thursday) because he knew he would be busy for the rest of the day.
Haddad, who has lived in Australia for 33 years, said it was not difficult to determine how to vote for the candidates.
He said the various Iraqi political parties had distributed brochures and had held meetings in Sydney ahead of the vote.
In a telephone interview with CNN from Sydney, Ghanim al-Shibli, Iraq's ambassador to Australia, was giddy.
"This is democracy in the making. This is freedom in the making," he said. "The Iraqi people are experiencing and tasting freedom. This is something tremendous -- just give you goose pimples."
One man, a Kurdish refugee from northern Iraq, waited outside the Sydney precinct hours before the doors opened. "It is truly a historic day," he said.
The ability of Iraqis to vote in safety in Australia and elsewhere contrasts with the situation in Iraq, where Iraqi and U.S. forces are further tightening security to ensure insurgent violence does not keep people from the polls Sunday.
Insurgents are targeting police stations and warning candidates and would-be voters that their lives will be at risk if they cast ballots to choose a 275-seat transitional national assembly.
A suicide car bomb exploded outside a Baghdad police station Friday, killing four people and wounding two others, an Iraqi police official said.
The bomb, in an SUV, was detonated outside the al-Dora police station in southern Baghdad at about 9 a.m. (1 a.m. ET).
Leaflets aim to intimidate voters
Leaflets distributed by insurgents in northern Baghdad neighborhoods warn that enough bombs and other weapons are on hand to "wash Baghdad streets with voters' blood."
"This is to everyone who wants to stand in the queues of elections, the queues of doom and death," say the leaflets, distributed near shops, markets and homes in the al-Banook and al-Shaab neighborhoods. Titled, "Final warning to those who want to participate (in the) elections," they were not signed by any particular insurgent group.
"We prepared for every election center car bombs, rockets, mortar rounds and explosives, and we swear, by God, that we will wash Baghdad streets with voters' blood," the pamphlet says.
It suggests that Iraqi and U.S. promises to secure election centers cannot be trusted because "they could not secure their bases, national guards and Iraqi police stations" -- an apparent reference to the December 21 attack on a mess hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul that left 22 people dead.
"How can they protect an election center that many people will come to?" the flier asks. "You saw our operations in Baghdad and Mosul."
The leaflet said interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's promises are useless, partly because "his main goal is to ... satisfy his leaders of Jewish and Americans."
Iraqi officials, mindful of the insurgent threats, will impose tighter restrictions for the period before and after the elections.
Daoud, the country's minister of state for national security, told reporters via a satellite news conference that from Friday through Monday curfews will be extended and vehicle movement restricted.
"We are not going to allow vehicles to reach directly to these polls, Daoud said. "Vehicles will stay away a certain -- in such a distance from the polls."
Civilians will also be prevented from moving from province to province, and voters will not be allowed to carry weapons, even if they have a license to do so, the minister said.
U.S. troops to play only supporting role
National security adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie said the first line of defense to protect voters will be the country's military and security forces, with support from U.S.-led multinational troops.
"The main aim is to delay the election, is to cancel the election, is to derail the political process," al Rubaie said. "This is not going to happen."
U.S. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond said American forces are ready. "Over the last 30 days we have pressed the insurgents hard -- ruthlessly," he said.
"In fact, we've conducted over 270 combat operations. And in doing so, we've detained over 800 insurgents and captured over 100 weapon caches," he said.
"Now, you can imagine that should, obviously, put some sort of dent in the insurgents' resources and his ability to continue to wage this fight. We believe it has. We truly believe it has."
Hammond emphasized American troops will play only a supporting role in the elections.
"It will be the Iraqi security forces actually guarding the polling sites with American forces supporting, but being very active," he said.
Hammond predicted there would be some violence, but said he believed most Iraqis would brave the prospect of danger to cast their ballots.
Hot spots for insurgents
Daoud said insurgents are mainly active in two of Iraq's 18 provinces, Anbar and Nineveh.
"There are a couple of hot areas in Salahuddin province and in Diyala province," Daoud said. "Otherwise, the whole country is more or less a safe country."
He described the insurgents as being mainly of two groups: "the Saddamists, which they are loyal to Saddam regime; and the Islamic fundamentalists."
Daoud blamed neighbors Syria and Iran -- which he compared to "naughty boys" -- for not doing enough to stop insurgents from using their countries as pathways to Iraq.
He said the Iraqi government has formed a trilateral committee with Syria and the United States to combat the problem.
"Until now, we didn't get any good response from the Syrians, although our intelligence information, with very solid documents, shows the involvement of some of the Syrian security forces authorities ... in these activities," Daoud said.
Daoud said part of the next step after the elections is to get more security and military personnel trained.
He estimated that about 90,000 Iraqi police officers and 55,000 members of the military are trained as of now, and said the goal is to have 150,000 members of the Iraqi army by 2006, he said.
CNN's Jane Arraf, Kianne Sadeq and Mohammed Tawfeeq, and journalist Anthony Clark contributed to this report. |
