Violence Erupts as Count Proceeds

Insurgents have launched their first major attack since the Iraqi elections, killing 12 army recruits near the northern city of Kirkuk.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, the final phase of the count continued amid accusations of voting irregularities. The main gripe is that ballot boxes and papers were not delivered in sufficient numbers – and in some cases not at all – to certain areas such as towns around Mosul, and parts of Baghdad and Basra.

In Kirkuk, armed gunmen stopped a bus carrying army recruits on February 2, and shot dead 12 of them, police said. Two of the recruits were left alive by the insurgents so that they could tell others not to join the United States-backed security force.

It was the largest loss of life in a single attack since Iraq’s historic elections on January 30.

Elsewhere in the country, two Iraqi contractors were killed on February 3 when gunmen fired on their vehicle in Baaqubah, just north of Baghdad. In the capital itself, an Iraqi soldier was gunned down on February 3 as he was leaving his home. And two civilians were killed on February 2 in Tal Afar, near Mosul in the north, when mortar rounds landed at the US base there.

At the headquarters of the Independent Election Commission of Iraq, IECI, located in Baghdad’s Green Zone, director Adel al-Lami insisted that no ballot boxes have gone missing since vote counting began. Al-Lami’s February 3 remarks were in response to rumours that boxes have been stolen or have gone missing.

On election day itself, insurgents mounted attacks on election workers in Baghdad, Baaqubah and other areas in a bid to steal ballot boxes, but US forces thwarted the attempts.

IECI chief al-Lami said that about half of all ballot papers from Iraq’s 18 governorates have now been sorted and readied for the final phase of the count. It is likely to take another week before final results are announced.

Zaineb Naji is an IWPR trainee journalist in Iraq.