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Iraq in near lockdown

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 29, 2005 by Evan Osnos

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Warplanes roared high overhead in a show of force. Iraqi security forces wearing black ski masks swarmed Baghdad streets. And residents of this uneasy city hurried home before an evening curfew Friday, as the nation entered a virtual lockdown for the final days until its landmark national election set for Sunday.

Amid fears that insurgents would try to disrupt the election, the Iraqi government announced the capture of three men it identified as top aides to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The arrests occurred earlier this month, and the announcement appeared to be part of a continuing effort to reassure voters wary of venturing to the polls. (See related story on A4.)

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U.S. forces launched waves of patrols on the ground and in the air, and an American OH-58 Kiowa Warrior crashed in southwestern Baghdad. The fate of the two-man crew was not immediately known, according to the military, which said it did not yet know what brought down the aircraft.

The crash added to an already heavy toll on U.S. forces supporting the election: A Marine helicopter on an election-related mission crashed Wednesday in far western Iraq, killing 31 troops. Five additional U.S. soldiers were killed Friday in unrelated incidents, and four Iraqi police officers died in a car bombing in southwestern Baghdad.

Working in secret across the country Friday, election officials raced to get polling equipment in place. In the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, workers at a warehouse were busy distributing polling booths and cardboard ballot boxes to 263 polling centers across Babil province.

The director of the provincial election commission, Asaad Ramadan, said officials were expecting turnout as high as 100 percent in some areas but less in northern reaches of the largely rural province because of "the existence of some terrorists in that area."

Iraqis looked to the vote with excitement and dread, as U.S. and Iraqi authorities warned that violence could worsen as the 22-month- old insurgency seeks to derail Iraq's first free elections in half a century.

A senior British military official said insurgent attacks, though down from their peak in mid-November, had increased in the days immediately before the election.

Officials recorded at least 13 car bombs Thursday and Friday, though the official said the attacks were poorly executed and casualties were low in comparison with previous attacks.

"The huge security operations will reduce the number of attacks to a minimum over the next few days, although it would be foolish to say they are going to be quiet," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The Iraqis I am meeting are hugely keen to vote, and the minority of the minority, which is what the insurgency is, is hell-bent on stopping them," the British official said. "I think Iraqis will show their determination to vote."

Even down to the final days, it was unclear how politics, fear and strategy would combine to shape turnout. In the heavily Sunni Adhamiya area, where only a scattering of campaign posters appear on the walls and talk of an election boycott is common, the imam of a major mosque expressed concern about violence.

"We don't want Iraq to be slaughtered in the name of freedom and democracy," imam Mouad al-Adhami told worshippers Friday.

"The voter should vote for a just, merciful and well-qualified candidate because voters will be asked by God on judgment day about the choices they made," intoned al-Adhami, Imam of Abu Hanifa mosque. "We don't want elections to benefit a group or sect and harm the other groups and sects. We have to unify Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds."

The U.S. deaths Friday included three soldiers killed in a roadside bomb that hit a patrol in a western district of Baghdad. The two others were killed in a bombing in the southern part of the capital and a separate shooting across town.

Iraq in near lockdown

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 29, 2005 by Evan Osnos

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