Under UN pressure, Iraq's parliament yesterday reversed changes to an electoral law that critics had charged made it harder to reject the new and deeply divisive constitution in next week's referendum.
The move came as thousands of US troops widened a sweep for al-Qaeda fighters in a new offensive along the Euphrates Valley near the Syrian border in a bid to shore up security ahead of the Oct. 15 vote.
The latest change in voting rules came only three days after Members of Parliament altered them in a way that drew sharp criticism from the US and the UN as well as the increasingly alienated Sunni Arab minority.
The political flap revolved around the terms under which the charter would be approved, and what could block its adoption. Yesterday's measure, approved by 119 of the 147 MPs present, places all voters on an equal footing.
The constitution will be approved if a simple majority of all those who turn out to vote say "yes" and if two-thirds of voters in at least three provinces do not say "no."
Sunday's change had referred to "voters" in terms of approval and "registered voters" for rejection.
The once all-powerful Sunnis, largely behind the ongoing insurgency, have enough registered voters in three provinces to torpedo the constitution, but have generally called for a boycott.
The vote on the constitution is a key stage in the country's political transition following the ouster of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by US-led forces in April two years ago.
And it is being held just four days before Saddam and seven of his former henchmen are due to go on trial over a massacre of Shiite villagers in 1982. They face the death penalty if convicted.
"You cannot have two different meanings in one article. It's using interpretation to your own benefit," a representative of the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq had said on Tuesday of the changes to voting rules.
And US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said parliament should stick to the spirit and the letter of the original article.
"In doing so, we think that, whatever the result of their discussions may be, that they should aim to broaden the political consensus," he said.
The charter has caused deep divisions between the Sunnis and the rival majority Shiites and their Kurdish allies who now dominate parliament.
Many Sunni Arab leaders have urged rejection of the text on the grounds that it undermines national unity by opening the doors to federalism, and waters down Iraq's "Arab" identity.
Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch, headed by Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, urged Sunnis to boycott the referendum, saying calls by Sunni groups for a "no" vote were meaningless.
"Do not participate in conferring legitimacy on the infidels," it said in an Internet statement, adding that joining the vote would give "the crusaders a cover to decide your fate as they see fit."
Ayad Samarrai, a leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni group, slammed the initial change, saying it was a "manipulation" by parliament to guarantee the consitution is adopted.
Meanwhile, the US military said it had killed 42 insurgents so far in another assault involving 1,000 troops in another border region launched on Saturday last week.
On Tuesday, about 2,500 US soldiers launched a new operation in the Euphrates River valley against al-Qaeda fighters in the largest such sweep of restive western Anbar province this year.
The new offensive, codenamed River Gate, aims "to deny al-Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River Valley cities and to free the local citizens from the insurgents' campaign of murder and intimidation."
The operation follows hot on the heels of Operation Iron Fist further up river, in which at least 42 rebels have been killed since Saturday.
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