Iraqis defy bomb attacks to vote

IRAQ: Iraqis on Sunday braved waves of bomb, mortar and rocket attacks that killed 24 people to vote in parliamentary elections that Al-Qaeda vowed to wreck. Baghdad bore the brunt of the violence, with dozens of mortars raining down on the capital as voting stations opened for the war-shattered nation’s second parliamentary election since US-led forces ousted dictator Saddam Hussein

Fallujah, Baquba, Samarra and other cities across the country were also hit by mortar rounds or bombs, many of them exploding near polling stations.

But the capital saw the deadliest attacks. A Katyusha rocket flattened a residential building, killing 12 and wounding 10, officials said, adding that a second blast killed four and wounded eight when another building was targeted by a bomb, security officials said.

Four more people were killed by mortar attacks in Baghdad and four others by bombs that between them wounded 40, the officials said. The attacks come despite a massive security operation in place for Sunday’s voting, with 200,000 police and soldiers deployed in Baghdad alone.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the attacks “are only noise to impress voters but Iraqis are a people who love challenges and you will see that this will not damage their morale.”

Maliki cast his vote in Baghdad’s fortified “Green Zone” which earlier Sunday took several mortar hits.

Abu Adel, a 57-year-old retired man, was one of the tens of thousands across the country who queued up at polling stations to cast their votes despite the danger.

“It is a duty to participate in the democratic process,” he said as he voted at the Omar al-Mokhtar polling centre in central Baghdad.

The election will usher in a government tasked with tackling a multitude of problems, including still high levels of violence, an economy in tatters and state ministries mired in a culture of endemic corruption.

Baghdad, Sunday, AFP