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Shiite List Leads in Vote Count, Sadr Belittles Polls
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The Sistani list got 67 percent of the votes counted so far. (Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
February 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraq's main Shiite
Muslim coalition maintained a big lead Friday, February 4, in the vote
count for the country's controversial election, with another leading
Shiite leader downplaying the significance of the poll itself, as
security improvement hoped for seemed more like a far-fetched dream,
with an Italian reporter kidnapped and more Iraqis killed.
The
Iraqi election commission said Friday the United Iraqi Alliance, which
has Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani as its
figurehead, had secured more than two thirds of ballots with about 40
percent counted.
The
Sistani-backed coalition won 2.212 million votes out of 3.3 million
counted so far, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
That
gave the Sistani list 67 percent of the vote and a commanding lead
over the list of interim prime minister Iyad Allawi in second place
with 579,000 votes, or 17 percent.
The
election, boycotted by a big chunk of Iraqis – mainly Sunnis – was
held Sunday, January 30, and was propagated by the United States and
its allies as the first free vote in Iraq for more than 50 years. The
final result is not expected to be known until next week.
Demands
for US Pullout
Another
leading figure among Iraqis, firebrand scholar Moqtada Al-Sadr,
meanwhile, called Friday on his community’s senior religious leaders
to insist on a timeline for a US troop withdrawal and belittled last
week's vote.
“This
is a message from Sayed Moqtada. I call on all religious and political
powers that pushed towards the elections and took part in them to
issue an official statement calling for a timetable for the withdrawal
of the occupation forces from Iraq,” Sayed Hashim Abu Ragheef told
the faithful gathered for Friday prayers in the Shiite city of Kufa,
according to AFP.
Al-Sadr
gave notice that he would no longer hold his tongue about political
developments in Iraq after keeping quiet for months, according to a
statement Ragheef read from Sadr to thousands of worshippers.
“I
stood aside for the elections and did not stand against them as I did
not want to show disobedience toward the Marjaiyah (senior Shiite
scholars). I did not join these elections so that I wouldn't be one of
the West's pawns.
“The
West is so proud that they have held the elections but I would ask:
who is responsible for the blood that day?” he asked.
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“I did not join these elections so that I wouldn't be one of the West's pawns,” said Sadr.
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Sadr
was referring to the death of at least 36 civilians in attacks on
Sunday as Iraqis went to the polls.
Sadr's
Mehdi Army militia battled US troops for seven months last year before
laying their arms down in October.
Journalist
kidnapped
Almost
a week after the elections were held, however, security in the
war-ravaged country did not improve, with attacks targeting US-led
occupation troops and the interim Iraqi army continuing, and more
Iraqis still fall victims of the ongoing clashes.
Also,
a female Italian journalist was kidnapped by armed men in central
Baghdad near the city's main university Friday, just minutes after she
had called her office to say she was fine.
“The
Italian journalist was kidnapped today around 2 pm (1100 GMT) in the
district of Al-Jadriya near Baghdad university,” an Iraqi interior
ministry official said, according to AFP.
“Men
in a minibus blocked their car. They took the journalist and an Iraqi
driver who were found in the car and whisked them away to an unknown
location,” the official said.
Italian
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the woman, Giuliana Sgrena, had
“probably been kidnapped by a Sunni (Muslim) group.”
He
voiced the Italian government's “unconditional solidarity” with
her and pledged its commitment “to do everything possible to secure
her release.”
Sgrena,
who writes for the Italian leftist daily Il Manifesto, had
called her office to say she was fine but was abducted a few minutes
later, her paper said from Rome.
“Giuliana
called us a quarter of an hour ago to say she was fine, but five
minutes later her interpreter rang us back to say that she had been
abducted near a mosque in Baghdad,” Gabriele Polo, one of the
newspaper's directors, told AFP.
Polo,
whose paper opposed last year's US-led invasion of Iraq, said US and
Iraqi forces and the Italian embassy had been informed of the
kidnapping.
Barbara
Schiavulli, a reporter working for Italy's Grt radio, said she had
been on the telephone with her when the abduction took place.
“She
called me as the kidnappers were taking her away. I heard the shots
and shouted 'Giuliana, Giuliana', but she didn't reply,” she told
the Italian news agency Ansa.
In
September, two Italian women working for humanitarian organizations in
Iraq were abducted and held for three weeks before being released.
Nine
Iraqis, 2 US soldiers Killed
On
the ground, Iraqi police said Friday attacks in a region north of
Baghdad left eight Iraq civilians and one rebel dead.
And
a roadside bomb Friday killed three civilians driving in a truck
carrying vegetables at Ishaki, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north
of the capital, according to police sources.
Two
other civilians were killed by booby trap bomb as they drove behind an
Iraqi army convoy.
On
Thurdsday night, two Iraqis were killed in a similar attack near Baiji,
an oil refinery 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Baghdad, police
said.
An
Iraqi soldier and anti-occupation fighter died in a clash at Dhuluiya,
which erupted after an insurgent attack on an Iraqi army patrol, the
military said.
The
US military announced earlier that two American troops were killed in
security operations Thursday.
It
said Friday one was in a roadside bomb attack near the northern Iraqi
city of Mosul, and the second was killed during what it termed as
“security operations” in Al-Anbar province.
“One
Task Force Freedom Soldier was killed and one was wounded when their
convoy was hit with a roadside bomb while on patrol south of Mosul,”
said a statement.
No
other details on the incident were immediately available.
The
death raised the overall toll for US soldiers killed in Iraq to 1,440
since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
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