[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi politicians on Saturday ended a fierce election campaign with little expectation for a clear winner to emerge from Sunday's vote that militants threatened to derail through violence.In leaflets distributed in volatile Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-led umbrella group, warned Iraqis they risked death if they voted.
A powerful car bomb near a Shiite shrine in Iraq's holy city of Najaf on Saturday killed two Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi and injured at least 54 people, police and medical officials said.
The blast occurred despite intense security measures put in place across Iraq in the lead up to the parliamentary vote, which has already been marked by violent attacks in Baghdad and the restive city of Baquba.
Suicide bombers killed at least 33 people in Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital, on Wednesday. Attacks in Baghdad, mostly aimed at soldiers and police who were voting early, killed at least 12 people and wounded 35 on Thursday.
Militants staged no major attacks on Friday. Security forces will ban vehicle movement from 10 p.m. (21:00 GMT) on Saturday until dawn on Monday to try to prevent election day bombings.
The Islamic State declared an election curfew of its own in a new message on a jihadist website and warned Sunnis that the polls would only serve to further empower majority Shiites.
"Anyone who goes out to participate on this day ... will unfortunately expose himself to the anger of Allah and then to all kinds of weapons of the mujahedeen," the message attributed to the group said, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
On the last day of legal campaigning, Ammar al-Hakim, leader of a powerful Shiite Islamist party, told Iraqis at a rally it was their religious duty to vote, citing appeals issued by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric.
"Look for the lists that have a history and roots and that stood by the Iraqis in good times and bad," Hakim declared.