Monday, January 10, 2005
'After Threats, Iraqi Electoral Board Resigns Head of Commission in Volatile Anbar Province Says Rebels Make Vote Impossible
By Jackie SpinnerWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, January 10, 2005; Page A12
BAGHDAD, Jan. 9 -- In another significant blow to Iraq's upcoming elections, the entire 13-member electoral commission in the volatile province of Anbar, west of the capital, resigned after being threatened by insurgents, a regional newspaper reported Sunday.
Saad Abdul-Aziz Rawi, the head of the commission, told the Anbar newspaper that it was "impossible to hold elections" in the province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims and where insurgent attacks already have prevented voter registration. The province includes the restive cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
"They are kidding themselves," Rawi said about officials hopeful that the elections, set for Jan. 30, could take place in Anbar.
An Iraqi at the commission's office in Anbar said the members had resigned and had gone into hiding.
Iraqi and U.S. officials have said Sunni participation in the elections is necessary for the vote to be considered legitimate. The largest political party representing Sunnis announced last month that it would drop out of the process, the country's first democratic elections in nearly half a century.
Insurgents have mounted a bloody campaign in the weeks leading up to the vote, targeting election workers, political party leaders and other participants. The U.S. military, meanwhile, has stepped up operations to stop the violence, but frequent attacks continue to grip the country.
At an elementary school in Tikrit, about 90 miles north of Baghdad, a rocket landed behind a school, narrowly missing a building crowded with children taking exams. The Um Omara school is a designated polling place, residents said.
"It was like an earthquake under my feet," said Kadhem Mohei, 57, a school guard. "The school walls cracked. It hit in the back yard." Mohei said his daughter, who was in the school, was slightly injured.
Meanwhile, in a village near the northern city of Mosul, where the U.S. military reported that it had mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on the wrong target Saturday, residents said the Americans actually hit the correct house, killing an insurgent who they said had killed Iraqi security forces.
The residents of Aaytha, 30 miles south of Mosul, said the bomb hit the home of the Numan family, members of the prominent Sunni Muslim Jubori tribe, one of the largest in Iraq. Witnesses said the blast killed 14 members of the family, including 10 women and children. Neighbors said a toddler related to the family was the sole survivor.
Salem Jasem Jubori, who lives close to the house that was destroyed, said the head of the household was a middle-age man who "used to kill and cut" his victims, primarily Iraqi police and National Guardsmen, in front of villagers.
"He was ferocious, very fierce and wild," Jubori said.
The U.S. military said in a statement Saturday that five people were killed and that it "deeply regretted the loss of possibly innocent lives." The statement said the house struck by an F-16 fighter jet "was not the intended target. . . . The intended target was another location nearby."
The military had no immediate reaction to the villagers' account.
Ali Yussef Shahin, 42, a relative of the people killed in the house, said no insurgents were in the village of about 100 houses.
"I think they did make a mistake," said Shahin, who lives in Mosul. "They wanted to attack the house to provoke the people."
Residents said the village of Aaytha has been largely peaceful but harbors extremists who oppose U.S. forces in Iraq.
Jubori, the neighbor of the family that was killed, said U.S. soldiers raided the house before it was bombed but did not make any arrests. He said that about five minutes after the Americans left the village, he heard a huge explosion.
"All the local people left their houses and went running," he said. "Because I lived the closest, I was the first who reached the bombed house. It was totally destroyed. We hurried to save our distressed neighbors but we discovered no one survived. All of them were killed."
In a separate incident Sunday, the U.S. Army said two people were killed when soldiers fired on a vehicle that had approached a checkpoint in Duluiyah, near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the road and hit a telephone pole, the military said in a statement. The driver and a front-seat passenger were killed. A passenger in the back seat was treated for shock. The military said the incident was under investigation.
A civilian guard at Duluiyah Electrical Co., who said he witnessed the incident, disputed that account. He said a gunner manning a Humvee at the checkpoint appeared to fall asleep, setting off a spray of bullets that pierced the vehicle. "It looked like he fell down on his gun and fired," said the guard, Abu Sager.
"The American soldiers were apologizing to the people . . . and took the family to the hospital," he said.
At the Balad hospital, Wasam Talab, a physician, said he treated four members of the family. The driver and his sister died from gunshot wounds, he said, and the driver's wife and 2-year-old son were treated for minor cuts from glass.
In another incident Sunday, witnesses said a roadside bomb planted in a carton exploded near a group of Marines and U.S. soldiers on foot patrol in the village of Abu Ghraib. The Marines confirmed that an improvised explosive device detonated, injuring an unspecified number of Marines and soldiers. As a policy, the Marines do not discuss details of casualties.
Farhan Ali, 52, a shepherd from the village, said insurgents told him to clear out of an area on a busy dirt road from Abu Ghraib to Smailat because they had planted a bomb in a cardboard carton that was set to blow up next to the foot patrol. "All the people in the area knew about it," he said. "The insurgents asked us to stay out of the road."
Ali's account, if accurate, shows how entrenched insurgents have become in local communities, where they target U.S. forces in broad daylight.
"All of us were just watching," Ali said. "There were a bunch of kids standing away from the road expecting and watching to see an explosion."
A U.S. soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad was killed in a roadside bomb explosion Sunday, the military said, without indicating where the attack occurred. In a separate incident, a Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action in Anbar province, the military said.
Seven Ukrainian troops and a Kazakh soldier also were killed Sunday when a bomb they had seized exploded accidentally.
On Monday, gunmen assassinated Baghdad's deputy police chief, Brig. Amer Nayef, and his son outside their home, the Reuters news agency reported.
And in Seoul, the Foreign Ministry said it was checking reports that one or two South Koreans may have been kidnapped in Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The kidnapping was reported on the Web site of a militant group that demanded the withdrawal of South Korea's 3,600 troops in Iraq. A South Korean, Kim Sun Il, was beheaded in June by insurgents who made similar demands.
By Jackie SpinnerWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, January 10, 2005; Page A12
BAGHDAD, Jan. 9 -- In another significant blow to Iraq's upcoming elections, the entire 13-member electoral commission in the volatile province of Anbar, west of the capital, resigned after being threatened by insurgents, a regional newspaper reported Sunday.
Saad Abdul-Aziz Rawi, the head of the commission, told the Anbar newspaper that it was "impossible to hold elections" in the province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims and where insurgent attacks already have prevented voter registration. The province includes the restive cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
"They are kidding themselves," Rawi said about officials hopeful that the elections, set for Jan. 30, could take place in Anbar.
An Iraqi at the commission's office in Anbar said the members had resigned and had gone into hiding.
Iraqi and U.S. officials have said Sunni participation in the elections is necessary for the vote to be considered legitimate. The largest political party representing Sunnis announced last month that it would drop out of the process, the country's first democratic elections in nearly half a century.
Insurgents have mounted a bloody campaign in the weeks leading up to the vote, targeting election workers, political party leaders and other participants. The U.S. military, meanwhile, has stepped up operations to stop the violence, but frequent attacks continue to grip the country.
At an elementary school in Tikrit, about 90 miles north of Baghdad, a rocket landed behind a school, narrowly missing a building crowded with children taking exams. The Um Omara school is a designated polling place, residents said.
"It was like an earthquake under my feet," said Kadhem Mohei, 57, a school guard. "The school walls cracked. It hit in the back yard." Mohei said his daughter, who was in the school, was slightly injured.
Meanwhile, in a village near the northern city of Mosul, where the U.S. military reported that it had mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on the wrong target Saturday, residents said the Americans actually hit the correct house, killing an insurgent who they said had killed Iraqi security forces.
The residents of Aaytha, 30 miles south of Mosul, said the bomb hit the home of the Numan family, members of the prominent Sunni Muslim Jubori tribe, one of the largest in Iraq. Witnesses said the blast killed 14 members of the family, including 10 women and children. Neighbors said a toddler related to the family was the sole survivor.
Salem Jasem Jubori, who lives close to the house that was destroyed, said the head of the household was a middle-age man who "used to kill and cut" his victims, primarily Iraqi police and National Guardsmen, in front of villagers.
"He was ferocious, very fierce and wild," Jubori said.
The U.S. military said in a statement Saturday that five people were killed and that it "deeply regretted the loss of possibly innocent lives." The statement said the house struck by an F-16 fighter jet "was not the intended target. . . . The intended target was another location nearby."
The military had no immediate reaction to the villagers' account.
Ali Yussef Shahin, 42, a relative of the people killed in the house, said no insurgents were in the village of about 100 houses.
"I think they did make a mistake," said Shahin, who lives in Mosul. "They wanted to attack the house to provoke the people."
Residents said the village of Aaytha has been largely peaceful but harbors extremists who oppose U.S. forces in Iraq.
Jubori, the neighbor of the family that was killed, said U.S. soldiers raided the house before it was bombed but did not make any arrests. He said that about five minutes after the Americans left the village, he heard a huge explosion.
"All the local people left their houses and went running," he said. "Because I lived the closest, I was the first who reached the bombed house. It was totally destroyed. We hurried to save our distressed neighbors but we discovered no one survived. All of them were killed."
In a separate incident Sunday, the U.S. Army said two people were killed when soldiers fired on a vehicle that had approached a checkpoint in Duluiyah, near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the road and hit a telephone pole, the military said in a statement. The driver and a front-seat passenger were killed. A passenger in the back seat was treated for shock. The military said the incident was under investigation.
A civilian guard at Duluiyah Electrical Co., who said he witnessed the incident, disputed that account. He said a gunner manning a Humvee at the checkpoint appeared to fall asleep, setting off a spray of bullets that pierced the vehicle. "It looked like he fell down on his gun and fired," said the guard, Abu Sager.
"The American soldiers were apologizing to the people . . . and took the family to the hospital," he said.
At the Balad hospital, Wasam Talab, a physician, said he treated four members of the family. The driver and his sister died from gunshot wounds, he said, and the driver's wife and 2-year-old son were treated for minor cuts from glass.
In another incident Sunday, witnesses said a roadside bomb planted in a carton exploded near a group of Marines and U.S. soldiers on foot patrol in the village of Abu Ghraib. The Marines confirmed that an improvised explosive device detonated, injuring an unspecified number of Marines and soldiers. As a policy, the Marines do not discuss details of casualties.
Farhan Ali, 52, a shepherd from the village, said insurgents told him to clear out of an area on a busy dirt road from Abu Ghraib to Smailat because they had planted a bomb in a cardboard carton that was set to blow up next to the foot patrol. "All the people in the area knew about it," he said. "The insurgents asked us to stay out of the road."
Ali's account, if accurate, shows how entrenched insurgents have become in local communities, where they target U.S. forces in broad daylight.
"All of us were just watching," Ali said. "There were a bunch of kids standing away from the road expecting and watching to see an explosion."
A U.S. soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad was killed in a roadside bomb explosion Sunday, the military said, without indicating where the attack occurred. In a separate incident, a Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action in Anbar province, the military said.
Seven Ukrainian troops and a Kazakh soldier also were killed Sunday when a bomb they had seized exploded accidentally.
On Monday, gunmen assassinated Baghdad's deputy police chief, Brig. Amer Nayef, and his son outside their home, the Reuters news agency reported.
And in Seoul, the Foreign Ministry said it was checking reports that one or two South Koreans may have been kidnapped in Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The kidnapping was reported on the Web site of a militant group that demanded the withdrawal of South Korea's 3,600 troops in Iraq. A South Korean, Kim Sun Il, was beheaded in June by insurgents who made similar demands.
