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Tape threatens Iraq voters

NOTE TO COMPOSING

THE WORLD

BAGHDAD - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq acknowledged serious problems ahead of next weekend's election but gave assurance Sunday that "great efforts" are being made so every Iraqi can vote. In an audiotape posted on the Web, a speaker claiming to be Iraq's most feared terrorist declared "fierce war" on democracy.

Rebels who have vowed to disrupt the balloting blew up a designated polling station near Hillah south of Baghdad and stormed a police station in Ramadi west of the capital, authorities said.

A U.S. soldier was killed Saturday on a security patrol in the northern city of Mosul, the military said Sunday. Large explosions and heavy gunfire also were heard in eastern Mosul late Sunday.

U.S. and Iraqi officials fear more such attacks before the election Sunday and have announced extensive security measures to protect voters. Iraqis will choose a 275-seat National Assembly and provincial councils in Iraq's 18 provinces in the first nationwide balloting since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Large turnouts are expected among Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims in the south and minority Kurds in the northeast. But the big question is whether Sunni Arabs, who form the core of the insurgency, will defy rebel threats and clergy calls for a boycott by participating.

"The Iraqis will be - will be just fine," Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice told reporters Sunday at the White House. "They're starting a process and this is an important step, a first step for them in this democratic process."

In a series of interviews Sunday on American TV talk shows, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte acknowledged an increase in rebel intimidation of Iraqi officials and security forces and said serious security problems remain in the Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad.

"But security measures are being taken, by both the multinational forces here in Iraq as well as the Iraqi armed forces and police," Negroponte said on Fox News Sunday.

Underscoring the threat, a speaker identifying himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the leader of Iraq's al-Qaida affiliate - condemned the election, branding candidates as "demi-idols" and saying those who vote for them "are infidels."

"We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," the speaker said in an audiotape posted Sunday on an Islamic Web site. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it."

[Last modified January 24, 2005, 01:32:09]