Word: iraqi
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...meeting with U.S. officials two weeks ago, local Kurdish leaders expressed concern that the forces sent by Baghdad and the Kurdish government to provide election security may not depart after the votes are counted. "I'm worried the Iraqi army won't leave. Then the Peshmerga won't leave. Then we will have a militarized city," the Kurdish mayor of Khanaqin, who asked to remain unnamed, warned. "What if they fought...
...Neither side is expecting the election to alleviate the growing friction. From the doorstep of his modest farmhouse outside Khanaqin, Mudhar Mohammed Madloum can see a Peshmerga checkpoint on one hill and an Iraqi army checkpoint barely half a mile away. Similar pairings are scattered along Diyala's contentious fault line. "The Peshmerga checkpoint has been here since the fall [of Saddam]. The Iraqi army checkpoint has been here for a few months," said Madloum. "They are not both necessary...
...security measures that Iraqi authorities are undertaking for Saturday's provincial elections are extreme even by the standards of a war-battered country all too familiar with checkpoints, mazes of blast walls and periodic road closures. Iraqi authorities are orchestrating what amounts to a nationwide lockdown for the coming vote, which many Iraqi and U.S. officials view as a key test of both the country's security forces and the durability of the reduced levels of violence in Iraq. On election day, Iraq plans to seal its borders, close Baghdad International Airport and ban all but specially licensed vehicles from...
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers will be on the streets on Saturday as up to 15 million registered voters head to the polls, mostly on foot, to cast ballots in what will decide a new makeup for 14 of Iraq's 18 provincial councils. Iraqi and U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that insurgents and militia elements may stage attacks on election day. With the vehicle ban, suicide bombers on foot and rocket or mortar fire pose the biggest threats. But so far there has been little sign that Iraq's militants are organizing a bloody show of force...
With a huge security operation in place, Iraqi officials have increasingly focused on more mundane election problems such as fraud and alleged violations of campaign rules ahead of balloting. Judge Kassem al-Boudi, spokesman for the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission, said 180 complaints were already registered. "You can imagine with any elections happening in the world, you should expect a number of violations," said al-Boudi, who spoke to reporters in Baghdad along with Qadir. "And we are sure that we are going to have more...