Word: anbar
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...held talks with Yawer's group, but also with representatives of the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party, Sunni groups that boycotted the election. The combination of the boycott call and intimidation by the insurgents proved remarkably successful in keeping Sunnis away from the polls: In Anbar province, which includes Fallujah and Ramadi, only 2 percent of voters went to the polls, while the turnout in Nineveh, which includes the northern city of Mosul and a significant Kurdish population, was only 17 percent. The result is that the two key Sunni candidates, President Yawer and former foreign...
...wreak havoc at the polls. The goal of the insurgents is to keep voter turnout as low as possible, in order to deny the election legitimacy. U.S. and Iraqi leaders have already acknowledged that voting will not be possible for many of the inhabitants of four Iraqi provinces - Anbar, Nineveh, Salahdin and Baghdad - which, between them, are home to upward of 40 percent of the population. Insurgent attacks have forced the resignation of electoral workers in Anbar and Nineveh, and plans to register voters have been scrapped in favor of allowing them to register and vote on the same...
...under present security conditions. The registering of voters and other electoral preparations in areas with substantial Sunni populations is way behind schedule, with many electoral officials having been murdered or having quit. The UN body overseeing the election plans to compensate by allowing Sunnis in volatile areas such as Anbar province (which includes Fallujah) and the northern city of Mosul to register and vote at the same time on election day. But the daily deluge of bombings, ambushes and assassinations throughout Sunni areas from the capital and its southern environs to as far north as Mosul renders the physical environment...
...perceived moderate or severe problem," according to a psychiatric study released last July by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The study termed those estimates "conservative," and most cases, says Nash, will not be apparent until the troops are back home. The Marine who served in al-Anbar for seven months says that when he drives past potholes in his hometown, he wonders if they will explode. If the refrigerator door closes, he says, "I ask myself if that was incoming fire. A bomb?" And he's older than most grunts. "The younger guys--18, 19 years old--they...
...third could lead to severe, lasting damage. But when given the option of going home, he chose to stay because, he says, "these are my brothers. I feel safer with them than I do anywhere else. I need to be with them." As the Marine who served in al-Anbar earlier this year puts it, "All of the bigger issues don't exist. You understand, ultimately, that the mission is about protecting each other...