Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not enough to form a government on their own. The Shiites likely will have to form a coalition in the 275-member National Assembly with the other top vote-getters — the Kurds and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list — to push through their agenda and select a president and prime minister. The president and two vice presidents must be elected by a two-thirds majority.
The Shiite-dominated ticket received more than 4 million votes, or about 48 percent of the total cast, Iraqi election officials said. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes, or 26 percent, and Allawi's list was third with about 1.168 million, or 13.8 percent.
"Until now there is no estimation regarding how many seats the political parties will get, when the counts are final the number of seats will be divided according to the number of votes," commission member Adel al-Lami said.
Elsewhere Sunday, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were also killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.
Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots for 111 candidate lists, the commission said. That represents a turnout of about 60 percent, several points higher than the predicted 57 percent.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," commission spokesman Farid Ayar said.
The figures also indicate that many Sunni Arabs stayed at home on election day, with only 17,893 votes — or 2 percent — cast in the National Assembly race in Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.
In Ninevah province, which includes the third-largest city, Mosul, only 17 percent of the voters participated in the National Assembly race and 14 percent voted in the provincial council contests.
A ticket headed by the country's president Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, won only about 150,000 votes — less than 2 percent. A list headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi took only 12,000 votes — or 0.1 percent.
Parties have three days to lodge complaints before the results are considered official, the election commission said.
Also Sunday, gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The attack occurred as Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan and his companions were traveling through Baghdad's Kazimiyah district, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A claim of responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida quickly surfaced on a Web site that often posts statements by Islamic militants. The claim described the brigadier general as a senior commander in the Iraqi National Guard and the guard commander at Taji camp, an American facility about 15 miles north of Baghdad.
There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.
Meanwhile, U.S. hopes for a larger NATO (news - web sites) role in Iraq suffered a setback when German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Sunday rejected calls for the alliance to protect U.N. operations there. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) also ruled out a U.N. security role.
In the battle just north of Mosul, insurgents fired on the convoy in Al-Qahira district, leaving at least four people dead and two wounded, doctors at the Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital said.
Insurgents also fired a rocket at the governor's building in Mosul, killing one woman and one man, as well as injuring four others, officials at the hospital said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were killed on Mosul's airport road while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb, police said.
NATO's role in Iraq has been limited to a small training mission in Baghdad and logistics support to a Polish-led force serving with the U.S. coalition. Iraq war opponents led by France and Germany have prevented the alliance developing a wider role, and have refused to send their own troops, even on the training mission.
Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, said his country would not veto a NATO decision to do more, if it was backed by the other 25 allies. But he insisted "we will not be sending soldiers to Iraq."
Fischer emphasized German efforts to help Iraq in other ways — through military and police training outside the country, economic aid and debt relief.