Shiite Leads Iraq Vote; 3 Marines Killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials Thursday released the first partial returns from national elections, showing a commanding lead by candidates backed by the Shiite Muslim clergy. Sunni insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks, killing at least 30 people, including three U.S. Marines and a dozen Iraqi army recruits.

Meanwhile, election officials said strict security measures may have deprived many Iraqis in the Mosul area and surrounding Ninevah province of their right to vote. The admission is likely to fuel complaints by Iraq (news - web sites)'s minority Sunni Arabs, who make up the heart of the insurgency, that they were not represented in the vote.

The results released by the election commission four days after Sunday's balloting came from Baghdad and five provinces in the southern Shiite heartland.

As expected, they showed that the United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was leading — with 1.1 million votes out of the 1.6 million counted and certified so far. Some 14 million Iraqis were eligible to vote.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_15

the end of long article on the election!!


.....In the deadliest incident, insurgents stopped a minibus south of Kirkuk, ordered army recruits off the vehicle and gunned down 12 of them, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin. Two soldiers were allowed to go free, ordered by the rebels to warn others against joining Iraq's U.S.-backed security forces, he said.

One U.S. Marine was killed Thursday in Babil province south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Two other Marines were killed in action Wednesday night in Anbar, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, rebels attacked Iraqi police Thursday in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing one policeman and wounding five, the Interior Ministry said.

Gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Iraqi contractors Thursday to jobs at a U.S. military base in Baqouba north of the capital, killing two people, officials said. ......

but I was sickened by that display last evening during the SOTU when the mother of the dead soldier hugged the Iraqi voter. Giving the citizens of another country the right to vote is NOT a valid reason for the death of that woman's son. I was horrified by the display!

I wonder what the administration will do when a Shiite fundamentalist government is installed that is in line with Iran? It appears as though that is what is about to happen, unless through some strange and "unexplainable" turn of events, Mr. Allawi and his compatriots are miraculously elected!