Word: anbar
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...about four days, the most powerful armed factions in Iraq were girding for war. Fighting tribesmen from Anbar province were openly threatening violence against political rivals they accused of trying to steal the provincial elections by stuffing ballot boxes in the Jan. 31 vote. Iraqi security forces in Anbar braced for trouble, at one point imposing a curfew, an increasingly rare move these days. U.S. forces in the province watched the situation warily, wondering whether the relative calm Iraq has known for roughly the last year would unravel in a matter of days or even hours. "The levels of violence...
...fighters who joined forces with U.S. troops to battle insurgents in 2007 - cooled down after preliminary election results showed them in second place - but well ahead of the alleged offending party. "The results are for us acceptable," said Hekmat Salman al-Ayida, a candidate for the provincial council for Anbar running under the Awakening movement's banner. The tense days, however, showed that armed retaliation for purported wrongs, remains an option for many Iraqis. The prospect of war still hovers over the country, despite the significant drop in violence. (See pictures of U.S. troops' 5 years in Iraq...
...long depended. Initial tallies show that candidates loyal to the Prime Minister won comfortably in 10 of the 14 participating provinces, including Baghdad. They failed to win, however, in the largely Shi'ite province of Karbala, in the mixed provinces of Diyala and Nineveh, and in largely Sunni Anbar, where unresolved allegations of election fraud among rival Sunni contenders have left the province fearing an outbreak of violence...
...national level. But the election took on added importance in the eyes of American and Iraqi officials, because it offered a chance for Iraq's Sunni minority, who boycotted the 2005 provincial elections, to rejoin the political process in areas where they have strong numbers such as Anbar and Diyala province. Election day was also seen as a key test for the Iraqi security forces, which staged a massive operation to secure the streets. Iraqi authorities put the country in virtual lockdown, sealing the borders, closing the airports and banning all but essential traffic in downtown areas. Thousands of Iraqi...
...sure, a number of militant rejectionists remain at large in Iraq. On Tuesday, attackers torched a polling station near the city of Fallujah in Anbar province. And sporadic bombings persist in Baghdad, Mosul and Diyala province. But the fear of carnage that has surrounded past elections and mass public gatherings like the regular Shi'ite pilgrimages is low.(See TIME's photo-essay "Showdown in Fallujah...