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Militant groups warn Iraqis not to vote
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-31 08:54
Three militant groups warned Iraqis against voting in Jan. 30 elections,
saying Thursday that people participating in the "dirty farce" risked attack.
All 700 employees of the electoral commission in Mosul reportedly resigned after
being threatened.
The warning came a day after insurgents in Mosul, which has seen increased
violence in recent weeks, launched a highly coordinated assault on a U.S.
military outpost. The United States said 25 insurgents were believed slain and
one American soldier was killed in the battle, which involved strafing runs by
U.S. warplanes.
Residents search
trough the rubble of a building destroyed during an airstrike the previous
day in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004. U.S.
troops and warplanes killed at least 25 insurgents as they attacked an
American outpost Thursday in northern Iraq with a car bomb and explosives.
[AP] | The United States, which has said the vote must go forward, has repeatedly
sought to portray recent attacks that have killed dozens of people as the acts
of a reeling insurgency, not the work of a force that is gathering strength.
The radical Ansar al-Sunnah Army and two other insurgent groups issued a
statement Thursday warning that democracy was un-Islamic. Democracy could lead
to passing un-Islamic laws, such as permitting homosexual marriage, if the
majority or people agreed to it, the statement said.
"Democracy is a Greek word meaning the rule of the people, which means that
the people do what they see fit," the statement said. "This concept is
considered apostasy and defies the belief in one God _ Muslims' doctrine."
Ansar al-Sunnah earlier posted a manifesto on its Web site saying democracy
amounts to idolizing human beings. Thursday's joint statement reiterated the
threat that "anyone who accepts to take part in this dirty farce will not be
safe."
Insurgents have intensified their strikes against the security forces of
Iraq's U.S.-installed interim government as part of a continuing campaign to
disrupt the elections for a constitutional assembly.
The statements by the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgent groups seemed aimed at
countering Shiite leaders' claims that voting in the election is every Muslim's
duty. Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the population, hope to use the vote to
power from minority Sunnis, who were favored under Saddam Hussein.
Iraqis will elect a national assembly that is to write a new constitution.
The Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported that all 700 workers for the
electoral commission in Mosul resigned Thursday because they had been threatened
and that Iraq's leading Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, had
withdrawn from the race.
If true, the move will severely hamper efforts to prepare for the vote in
Mosul, which has been too dangerous for most work to even begin though the vote
is now only a month away.
Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, could
not confirm the Al-Jazeera report.
"We have been trying to contact our people in Mosul to see if the report is
accurate but we have not been able to reach them," Ayar told The Associated
Press.
Wednesday's attack in the northern city of Mosul exhibited a coordination
rarely seen among Iraq's insurgents. The violence began with a massive truck
bomb exploding just outside a U.S. checkpoint, followed by attacks by squads of
10-12 insurgents.
A Stryker vehicle reinforcing the Americans was hit by a roadside bomb and a
second car bomb. U.S. forces then called in airstrikes by F-18 and F-16 fighter
jets, which launched three Maverick missiles and conducted several strafing
runs.
U.S. officials called the attack a sign of desperation ahead of the vote.
"The fact of the matter is we're keeping the insurgents off balance and
they're reeling backward. They're trying to come at us and we're giving it right
back," spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said.
"The terrorists are growing more desperate in their attempts to derail the
elections and they're trying to put it all on the line and give it all they
can."
Still, Iraq's third-largest city has become more worrisome in the weeks since
a U.S.-led invasion routed insurgents from their base in the Sunni-dominated
city of Fallujah in mid-November.
Across Iraq, dozens of insurgents, Iraqi civilians and security forces have
been killed in attacks over the last 48 hours, and the guerrillas have shown new
ingenuity to inflict large casualties.
Fourteen U.S. soldiers died Dec. 21 when a suicide bomber walked into a mess
tent in Mosul packed with soldiers having lunch. In all, 22 people were killed
and dozens wounded in the blast. The Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility.
Late Tuesday, insurgents lured police into a house in Baghdad after issuing
an anonymous tip and then detonated nearly a ton of explosives. Twenty-nine
people were killed, including 22 civilians and seven police, and several
surrounding houses were leveled.
Mohammed Salah, a Cairo, Egypt-based expert on Islamic militancy, suggested
that insurgents may be experimenting with new tactics to test the Americans
after the guerrillas lost their stronghold in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. Up to
now, their chief weapons have been roadside bombs and suicide attacks.
"Since they are always pursued, they try to be creative," Salah said. "They
have to be creative because they know repetitiveness is dangerous for them."
There was no claim of responsibility for the latest Mosul attack, but it
followed a Wednesday warning from Ansar al-Sunnah that Iraqis should stay away
from U.S. and Iraqi military installations.
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