- Insurgents in Iraq intent on derailing elections due
in less than two weeks stepped up a campaign of violence across the country
yesterday, claiming dozens more lives in shootings and car bombings.
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- A campaign of assassinations has claimed victims from
north to south Iraq. Gunmen are now setting up their own checkpoints on
most roads leading out of Baghdad.
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- Yesterday a suicide car bomber drove into the police
headquarters in the oil refining town of Baiji, 100 miles north of Baghdad,
and killed at least 10 people in the blast. About 30 more people were injured,
and witnesses described seeing several burned corpses lying on the ground
in the police compound.
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- Another eight Iraqis, all national guardsmen, were shot
dead in an attack on their checkpoint outside a provincial broadcasting
centre in Buhriz, near Baquba, also north of Baghdad. Later a militant
group apparently led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed
responsibility.
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- Six bodies were found in the western city of Ramad with
notes attached to them describing them as collaborators. "The fate
of every agent will be slaughter," one of the notes said.
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- The Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint
yesterday. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic
church was seized by gunmen outside his church.
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- The number of attacks across the country now averages
80 a day, the same level as last spring when the US occupation was facing
its greatest challenge, trying to head off armed uprisings in Sunni and
Shia areas.
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- There is also a growing number of incidents south of
Baghdad, even in previously quiet areas. Gunmen opened fire on a polling
station in Musayib, 50 miles south of the capital. At least one guard and
one insurgent were killed.
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- In the southern port city of Basra, mortars were fired
at three schools that have been designated as voting centres. No one was
injured but the schools were badly damaged. An additional 650 British troops
from the Royal Highland Fusiliers arrived in the city on Sunday to boost
security.
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- In the southern town of Numaniya, near Kut, gunmen shot
dead the son of Habib Salman al-Katib, a representative of Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani, the leading Shia clerical authority in Iraq. Several of
his aides have been assassinated in recent days.
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- There have been other recent killings near Kut, once
a peaceful Shia town, with several accounts of gunmen shooting drivers
dead at checkpoints. At least 17 people died around the town in attacks
on Sunday, including Iraqi policemen, national guardsmen, local government
officials and Iraqis working for foreign companies involved in reconstruction
projects.
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- Salama al-Khafaji, a high-profile moderate Shia politician,
survived an ambush in Baghdad on Sunday - the second attempt on her life
in the past year. Yesterday she cancelled plans for an election campaign
tour through the south.
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- Iraqi officials have tried not to publicise the location
of polling stations for fear of attacks. But the secrecy surrounding the
election often goes much further. Although there are more than 100 political
parties and coalitions taking part, few have given the names of candidates.
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- A security clampdown will be enforced in the days leading
up to the election.
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- Yesterday the most senior American commander in Iraq,
General George Casey, accepted it was likely to be a violent polling day.
"The enemy we're fighting is not 10ft tall, but he's resourceful and
persistent. Is there going to be violence on election day? There is."
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- Iraqi exiles in 14 countries began registering yesterday
to take part in the election. Estimates of the number of expatriates entitled
to vote range from one million to four million. Britain, with an estimated
150,000 eligible voters, has three centres, in London, Manchester and Glasgow.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1392741,00.html
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