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Iraq

Early Iraq poll results come amid violence

BAGHDAD - A vegetable truck rigged with explosives blew up Friday outside a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad, and gunmen sprayed automatic fire into a bakery in a Shiite district of the capital in sectarian violence that killed at least 23 people.

The attacks occurred as election officials announced provisional final results from the Jan. 30 elections for provincial councils in 12 of the 18 provinces, showing Shiite religious groups winning handily over secular tickets in local races in much of the country.

Final results from the more closely watched national race for the 275-member National Assembly are expected in a few days. A Shiite-dominated ticket endorsed by the clergy is also leading in the national contest, indicating the growing influence of religion in the politics of the new Iraq.

An American soldier from Task Force Baghdad was killed in a bombing Friday west of the capital, the U.S. military said. More than 1,450 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

In other violence:

A U.S. Marine and an Army soldier were killed Friday in separate traffic accidents, the military said. The Marine, assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, died in an accident while conducting security operations in Anbar province west of Baghdad, the command said. Separately, a U.S. Army soldier assigned to the 1st Marines was killed in an accident during security operations in the northern Babil province south of the capital. Names of the victims were withheld pending notification of relatives.

A suicide driver rammed a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle and exploded in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, injuring three soldiers, the military said.

Two Iraqis were killed by a roadside bomb near Tal Afar in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Two other Iraqi civilians were killed during a clash between U.S. troops and insurgents in Mosul.

U.S. Marines killed two insurgents during an attack Friday night on a Marine position near Husaybah along the Syrian border, the military said.

Overall, at least 31 people were killed Friday, including 23 in the two sectarian attacks.

On Friday, the election commission released what it said were final results and turnout figures from local races in Baghdad and 11 other provinces, most of them predominantly Shiite or Kurdish.

Turnout in Baghdad for the local races was 48 percent, despite long queues in Shiite and religiously mixed neighborhoods. Polling centers in the heavily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah never even opened.

The biggest turnouts reported Friday were from two Kurdish provinces - Dohuk with 89 percent and Sulaimaniyah at 80 percent. The lowest figure - 34 percent - came from Diyala, which is home to Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise one-day visit to Mosul and Baghdad, hailing what he called progress in Iraqi security forces after seeing some of them in training. But, he said, it was too soon to discuss when U.S. troops could begin coming home.

[Last modified February 12, 2005, 00:25:13]