Iraq votes: At least 20 Iraqis killed in election attacks

An Iraqi woman is searched before entering a polling station to cast her vote in the southern city of Basra. Picture / Reuters

UPDATE - Insurgents have unleashed a wave of bloody attacks on Iraq's historic election, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens at polling stations across the country.

Militants determined to wreck Iraq's first multi-party elections in half a century on Sunday struck mainly in Baghdad with six suicide bombings in rapid succession.

Casting his vote in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged his countrymen to defy the guerrillas and go to the polls.

"This is a historic moment for Iraq, a day when Iraqis can hold their heads high because they are challenging the terrorists and starting to write their future with their own hands," he told reporters.

Many Shi'ite and Kurdish voters braved the insurgents' threat to drown the election in blood. But in Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, where violence has been fiercest, few people ventured out and some polling centres failed to open.

A low Sunni turnout could undermine the credibility of Iraq's first election since Saddam Hussein was toppled in a US-led invasion in April 2003. Many fear that instead of quelling the anti-American insurgency, the poll could foment sectarian strife.

Despite draconian security measures imposed by Iraq's US-backed interim government, the militants launched a sustained assault within hours of the polls' opening, clearly aiming to frighten people away from voting.

The deadliest attack occurred when a bomber with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up in the queue at a polling station in east Baghdad, killing six people, an official said.

Another bomber killed four people in west Baghdad, while others killed two people in attacks elsewhere in the capital.

A suicide car bomb also killed a policeman near a Baghdad polling site and at least four people died in a blast at a voting centre in the Sadr City slums, a Shi'ite stronghold.

A mortar attack in southern Baghdad killed at least two and mortar rounds also rained down on other cities, including Basra, Mosul, Baquba and Hilla, where one person was killed.

DESERTED POLLING PLACES

Polling places were deserted in parts of the Sunni Arab heartland, where an anti-US insurgency has been bloodiest and many people were boycotting the election. But voters were queueing in some Shi'ite-dominated areas and the Kurdish north.

Militant groups, including one led by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have vowed to bomb "infidel" polling stations and kill anyone who dares to vote.

"For the last time, we warn that (Sunday) will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the (election) game of America and Allawi," Zarqawi's group said in an Internet statement on Saturday.

Fear of attack hung over the polls that opened at 7 a.m. (5pm NZT) at more than 5,000 sites around Iraq. Some 14.2 million Iraqis were eligible to cast ballots.

Some people voted early, but many waited to see if insurgents would strike. Some were afraid of being targeted when they vote or later, worried that the indelible blue ink daubed on their index fingers to avoid multiple voting could mark them for death.

But in Basra, a Shi'ite-dominated southern city spared the deadliest pre-election attacks that swept other parts of Iraq, voting was brisk.

"I'm really happy, this is like a festival for all Iraqis," said one young man, Samir Khalil Ibrahim.

In Baghdad, a small group ululated as Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, a descendant of Iraq's last king, overthrown in 1958, went to the polls in southern Baghdad. Ali heads a constitutional monarchy list standing in the election.

STRINGENT SECURITY MEASURES

To try to prevent violence, Iraq was under a security lockdown. Borders were sealed, airports closed and only official vehicles allowed on the streets after heavy bloodshed on the eve of voting, including a bold rocket strike that killed two Americans at the US embassy compound in the Green Zone.

Iraq's 60 percent-majority Shi'ites, oppressed for decades under Saddam, are expected to dominate the polls. Kurds, who make up nearly a fifth of Iraqis, want a result that enables them to enshrine their autonomous rule in the north.

Washington hopes the ballot will help transform Iraq from Saddam's dictatorship to democracy but it risks worsening the insurgency by further alienating Iraq's 20 percent-minority Sunni Arabs, who formed the backbone of Saddam's ruling class.

Several Sunni parties are boycotting the polls, saying the insurgency raging in the Sunni heartlands and the presence of more than 150,000 US-led troops make a fair vote impossible.

A Shi'ite alliance formed under the guidance of the top Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is almost certain to win the most votes. Even if Allawi's secular alliance does not do well, he could be a consensus candidate to stay in office.

The campaign unfolded in a climate of such intimidation that most candidates kept their names secret and even the locations of polling places were kept under wraps to the last moment. Iraqi police and soldiers were out in force to protect polling places.

US and British forces stood back to avoid the impression of Iraqis voting under occupiers' guns. Iraqi officials hope for a turnout of at least 50 percent to lend legitimacy to the outcome.

Officials expect preliminary results in six to seven days and final results in about 10 days.

- REUTERS