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Nickdfresh
11-26-2004, 08:27 PM
Ex-Iraqi foreign minister backs call to delay elections
Blast in Baghdad's Green Zone kills four British security workers
Friday, November 26, 2004 Posted: 5:06 PM EST (2206 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A group of 15 Iraqi political parties, backed by former Iraqi foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, called Friday for a delay in the national elections scheduled for January 30.

The parties said there isn't sufficient time to prepare, campaign and create the secure environment needed for the elections, which would choose members of a transitional national assembly.

"The two main issues are security and the necessity for an inclusive election," said Pachachi, who also served briefly as president of the Iraqi Governing Council, which was established by the U.S.-led coalition after the war.

Also agreeing with the postponement was Rasim al-Awadi, secretary-general of the National Accord Party -- the party of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

In the past, some Sunni Muslim parties have called for the election to be postponed or said they would boycott the ballot.

The call Friday came at a meeting that marked the first time the Sunni parties were joined by secular parties, including the two major Kurdish parties.

Earlier this week, Iraq's National Election Commission announced the nation's first post-Saddam vote would take place January 30.

"The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in January," said President Bush, speaking to reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The Bush administration is hoping free elections will help stabilize the country and build a sense of legitimacy for the new government.

Administration officials have acknowledged that violence in many parts of the country could make voting dangerous or perhaps even impossible in some places.

Fareed Ayar, a spokesman for the Iraqi Election Commission, said Friday the commission has decided to extend the deadline for all parties nationwide to submit their list of candidates for seats in the transitional national assembly until December 10.

The commission also has extended the deadline for the certification of political parties in three Iraqi regions -- Al Anbar, Mosul and Salahudin -- until December 2 because of violence in those areas that made "gathering, organizing and registering nearly impossible," Ayar said.

The previous deadlines for both registrations had been the end of November.

Ayar said he doubted the elections could be postponed, because neither the Iraqi interim government nor the current national assembly has such authority. The interim Iraqi constitution specified the elections must be held by the end of January.

Green Zone attack
Four members of a British security firm were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in an attack Thursday in Baghdad's Green Zone.

The four were employees of Global Risk Strategies, a London-based firm that provides security in countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lt. Steve Boylan, a coalition press spokesman, said information from the U.S. military indicated either a rocket or mortar round hit a compound belonging to Global Risk Strategies.

He said the four dead were described as of Nepalese origin. The British Foreign Office said 15 were wounded.

The Green Zone is a heavily fortified section of Baghdad where many Iraqi government agencies and the U.S. military have their headquarters. The area has been the target of previous mortar attacks.

Bodies found in Mosul
U.S. troops found six bodies in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, bringing the number of bodies found in and around the city in the past eight days to 46.

The bodies, all male, were being retrieved for identification. There was no immediate word on the manner of their death or the condition of the bodies. Iraqi Security Forces are leading the investigation.

On Thursday, 13 corpses were found in the western part of the city and two others were discovered outside of Mosul en route to Tal Afar, a U.S. military representative said.

A day earlier, a U.S. military convoy found five bodies in the western sector of Mosul, a U.S. military official said.

Seven bodies, including that of at least one Iraqi soldier, were discovered Sunday. Nine bodies of Iraqi army members -- all shot in the back of the head -- were found Saturday morning. Four decapitated bodies were discovered Thursday of last week.

In Falluja, two Marines were killed during house-clearing operations Thursday, according to a 1st Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman.

U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to clear the city after a two-week offensive destroyed the resistance command operations there.

As of Friday, 1,234 American troops have died in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 -- 963 of them in hostile action.

A car bomb detonated Friday morning near a military convoy north of Baghdad, wounding two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis, according to a military spokesman and a journalist in the city.

The attack happened in Aqua, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad, just after 10 a.m. local time, according to Capt. Bill Copper of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division.

Other developments

Brigadier Abdullah Shimari, head of the Iraqi National Guard in Hebib, a small city about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Baquba, was gunned down as he was leaving his home at 4:30 p.m. Friday, local authorities said.


Iraqi soldiers discovered chemical materials in a Falluja lab, Iraq's interim national security adviser said Thursday. A U.S. military official confirmed that the materials included instructions for making anthrax, as well as formulas and ingredients for making explosives and chemical blood agents. Also found in the lab were hydrochloric acid and sodium cyanide, which can be used to make the blood agent hydrogen cyanide, the military official said.


A top aide of wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been arrested in Mosul, Iraq's interim national security adviser said Thursday. Abu Said was arrested on Tuesday.


An Iraqi Red Crescent Society aid convoy arrived Friday in Falluja under U.S. military escort to begin distributing food and medical supplies. A few families said they wanted to leave but were unable to because of the curfew the U.S. military had imposed as Marines mopped up pockets of resistance.

CNN's Ayman Mohyeldin, Kianne Sadeq, Cal Perry, Kevin Flower and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

DEMON CUNT
11-27-2004, 02:48 AM
Great work, Mr. Bush!

What a fucking mess!

blueturk
11-27-2004, 04:19 AM
Aw come on now! Everything's fine!

Nickdfresh
11-27-2004, 02:14 PM
Everything just going to be bully!!