|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 19 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Iraq plans unprecedented measures to protect polls BAGHDAD, Tuesday (Reuters) Iraq said on Tuesday it would shut its land borders and bar traffic from getting close to voting centres over the Jan. 30 polls to try to thwart attacks, as insurgents targeted a Shi'ite party with a suicide bomb. In another high-profile kidnapping, insurgents released a video of eight hostages they said were Chinese and threatened to kill them in 48 hours unless the Beijing government explained what they had been doing in Iraq. An archbishop from the beleaguered Iraqi Christian minority was freed by kidnappers who had snatched him a day earlier. A statement from Iraq's election commission said frontier posts would be closed and tight restrictions declared on all vehicle traffic from Jan. 29-31, a set of extraordinary measures aimed at preventing a bloodbath on election day. Hours earlier, a suicide car bomber attacked a Baghdad office used by a major Shi'ite party in the latest insurgent attack apparently aimed at stoking sectarian strife. Police said one person was killed and seven were wounded by the blast outside the office used by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). A leading SCIRI official said the dead man was one of the guards at the building. He said guards had opened fire at the suicide bomber's vehicle as it approached a checkpoint. SCIRI's leader heads a list of mainly Shi'ite candidates expected to win strong support in the elections. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
