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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Pre-election attacks kill 19 Iraqis |
| 2005-01-27 |
| With Iraq's election only three days away, insurgents bent on wrecking the poll killed 19 Iraqis and a US Marine on Thursday and bombed polling stations in the country's Sunni heartland. The flurry of attacks, including the execution of four Iraqi National Guards, came as US investigators probed a helicopter crash that killed 31 US troops on Wednesday, the deadliest day for American forces since the war began. But the jihadist Army of Ansar al-Sunna issued a "final warning" to stay away from the polls, saying anyone who voted would be marked for death, either during or after the election. "Those who don't pay heed will have only themselves to blame," the group said in a statement on an Islamist website. Gunmen abducted and executed four National Guards in the western city of Ramadi, an officer in the US-trained force said. Notes were found pinned on the four bodies warning against collaboration with American troops. In Samarra, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed three civilians and another explosion near an Iraqi army patrol took the lives of a soldier and two bystanders. Insurgents blew up a school administration building designated as a polling station in Samarra after ordering workers out, officials said. At least five other sites slated for voting were bombed in neighbouring towns. Late on Thursday, explosions hit four polling places in schools in the western city of Ramadi, destroying one of the buildings, police said. No casualties were reported. In Mahmudiya, an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, a car bomb killed three policemen and an Iraqi soldier. The US military said one Marine was killed and four others wounded in an attack in the same area. A car bomb exploded near a US base in Ramadi but no casualties were reported. Two bystanders were killed earlier in crossfire between gunmen and US troops in the western city. It was not clear which side shot them. In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb killed a policeman, and in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit a translator working with US forces was killed by a roadside bomb. Three other policemen were killed in a series of separate attacks. While US-led forces worked to quell the insurgency, a US transport helicopter went down in the desert of western Iraq on Wednesday. Thirty Marines and a sailor were killed. Investigators were trying to find the cause of the crash. But there were signs that bad weather may have been a factor. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |