Posted by NEWS on 30/1/2005, 18:23:47 By Luke Baker and Khaled Yacoub Oweis BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents killed two Americans in an audacious rocket strike on a U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad on Saturday, after killing 17 other people across Iraq on the eve of a landmark election. The militants have sworn to turn the poll into a bloodbath and kill anyone who dares to vote. The rocket struck the American compound in Baghdad's huge fortified Green Zone after dark, setting off an explosion that could be heard throughout the city center. "It hit near the embassy building," spokesman Bob Callahan said. "There are two dead and four who are wounded ... all Americans." The attack deepened fears of an insurgent blitz on election day and demonstrated their ability to strike at the heart of the interim government and American power in the Green Zone, a vast complex on the west bank of the Tigris river. It could also worsen the fears of Iraqis' about voting on Sunday in the country's first multi-party election in nearly half a century. Before the embassy attack, Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged fractious religious and ethnic groups to vote and defy "enemies trying to break us and to break our world." Even as U.S.-trained security forces barricaded streets, sealed land borders and closed Baghdad airport, more than a dozen polling stations were attacked and bloodshed continued to overshadow the final electoral countdown. A suicide bomber struck a U.S.-Iraqi security center in the town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military said three Iraqi soldiers and five civilians were killed. Al Qaeda's network in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility and threatened mayhem when voters go to the polls from 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday. "For the last time, we warn that tomorrow will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the (election) game of America and Allawi," it said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site. Most other attacks were concentrated in the Sunni heartlands of central Iraq where the insurgency has been fiercest and where many once-privileged Sunnis plan to boycott the election. Under pressure to start bringing U.S. troops home after the election, President Bush said their mission must keep going to help the new government get its footing. "Terrorist violence will not end with the election," he said. EMBASSY ATTACK The U.S. spokesman said the rocket hit an embassy annexe in Saddam's Hussein's huge former Republican Palace, where most staff work. The U.S. ambassador and other senior staff occupy a separate building. Many embassy staff are housed in prefabricated trailers which are protected by blast walls and sandbags but are open to aerial assault. The embassy was previously hit by mortar fire in August last year, wounding two people but causing no deaths. Insurgents frequently fire into the Green Zone but usually without effect. Also on Saturday, insurgents killed a guard when they blew up an explosives-laden donkey cart outside a polling station in Sharqat, south of Mosul, witnesses said. Mortars hit a voting center in the refinery town of Baiji, wounding four guards. Other sites were dynamited overnight. The election is the cornerstone of the Bush administration's plan to transform Iraq from dictatorship to democracy after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. But it risks fueling the insurgency and fomenting sectarian strife. South of Baghdad, a Iraqi woman and her child were killed when mortar rounds targeting a U.S. base struck their home. U.S. troops killed two Iraqis in a car near the western city of Ramadi, according to witnesses. The circumstances were not immediately known. Zarqawi's group has declared holy war against the election, calling voting stations "centers of infidelity and immorality." CLIMATE OF INTIMIDATION President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab, predicted that up to two-thirds of Iraq's 14.2 million eligible voters would cast ballots. The U.S.-backed interim government has said it hopes for a turnout of at least 50 percent. The election campaign has unfolded with almost no rallies or canvassing. Authorities have even kept the names of candidates and location of polling stations secret until the last moment. The turnout is expected to be lowest in Sunni areas, where the insurgency has been bloodiest. Sunnis, the backbone of Saddam's ruling class, make up 20 percent of the population. Iraq's 60 percent-majority Shi'tes, 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. Many people vowed to brave the threats, but others were afraid of being targeted at the polls or afterwards, when indelible blue ink daubed on their index fingers to prevent multiple voting could mark them for death. (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny, Luke Baker, Omar Anwar and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad)
Rocket Kills 2 at U.S. Embassy on Eve of Iraq Vote
Sat Jan 29, 2005 02:06 PM ET
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