A suicide bomber yesterday detonated explosives strapped to his body in front of a police station in a Kurdish town near the Iranian border, killing eight people on the eve of Iraq's crucial national election, Iraqi and US officials said. Insurgents attacked polling places in at least eight cities.
In Baghdad, bursts of heavy machine-gun fire rattled through central districts at midday, and several heavy detonations shook the downtown area in the afternoon. US fighter jets roared through the skies in a show of force.
Iraqi police and soldiers set up checkpoints in streets largely devoid of traffic. Seven US soldiers were killed Friday in the Baghdad area, including two pilots who died in the crash of their OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter.
West of the capital, in the insurgent bastion of Ramadi, five Iraqis, with hands tied behind their backs, were found slain yesterday on a city street. One of the bodies was decapitated. Militants accused them of working for the US.
Sunni Muslim extremists have warned Iraqis not to participate in the election today, threatening to "wash the streets" in blood. Iraqis will chose a 275-member National Assembly and provincial councils in Iraq's 18 provinces. Voters in the Kurdish self-ruled area of the north will select a new regional parliament.
The suicide attack occurred in Khanaqin, 110km northeast of Baghdad on the Iranian border. Police Colonel Mohammed al-Khanaqini said the man who carried out the suicide attack was wearing a belt of explosives and detonated himself between a US base and a courthouse.
Eight mortar shells landed at an Iraqi National Guard barracks in the central town of Suwayrah, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding another, the Polish military said. South of Baghdad, rebels opened fire on US Marines and Iraqi forces as they placed concrete blast barriers around polling stations south of the capital yesterday.
Attacks on polling stations were reported in a total of seven cities from Dohuk in the far north to Baghdad in the center and Basra in the south.
US and Iraqi forces have imposed strict security measures, including sealing the country's borders, closing Baghdad's international airport, extending the hours of the curfew and restricting private vehicles.
In Basra, however, hundreds of Iraqi police uniforms have gone missing in Iraq's second largest city and may be in the hands of insurgents to help them slip through checkpoints, according to a report by the British media pool.
Members of the country's Shiite Muslim majority -- estimated at 60 percent of the population -- are expected to turn out in force for the ballot, encouraged by their clergy. A heavy turnout is also expected in Kurdish areas.
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