Iraq rebels mock security in poll lead-up

Nicolas Rothwell, Suleimaniyah, northern Iraq
January 24, 2005

TENSION, as much as anticipation, marks the run-up to Iraq's first democratic elections on Sunday, with political contenders making their last-minute pitches and insurgents pressing their violent campaign of intimidation.

Iraq's interim Government announced further tough restrictions on all movement during the poll weekend, shutting Baghdad international airport to all traffic and imposing a strict dusk-to-dawn curfew across the country for the election period.

But their efforts to ensure tight security on voting day were mocked by the explosion of a roadside bomb yesterday on Baghdad's key airport highway, the most dangerous stretch of road in the country, within sight of the highly fortified governmental Green Zone. The explosion killed one Iraqi and wounded another two, official sources said.

Master-terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last night declared all-out war on the vote – which he described as a "wicked trap aimed at putting the Rafidha (Shi'ites) in the seat of power in Iraq" – in a message posted in his name on an Islamic website.

On the campaign trail, a defiant appeal to nationalist sentiment was the key theme, and the prospect of a moderate Shia-dominated government determined to stress Iraqi control of national affairs solidified.

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He is sarving to help divide the Iraqi people and the Arab nation by religious belief. This is reactionary and serves the new colonialism. I would not be surprised if this man was trained by Western intelligence during the anti-Afghanistan campaign by Pakistan and the CIA during the 1980s.