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| Friday, 17 December 2004 |
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Shi'ites bombed as Iraq poll campaign begins BAGHDAD, Thursday (Reuters) A bomb near a Shi'ite shrine killed eight people and a fierce attack on Iran by a minister fuelled fears of sectarian strife when campaigning began on Wednesday for Iraq's first election since Saddam Hussein's fall. U.S. President George W. Bush warned Syria and Iran not to interfere in Iraq and urged neighbouring countries to help enforce border security before the Jan. 30 poll, likely to hand power to the long-oppressed majority Shi'ites at the expense of Saddam's fellow Sunnis. "We will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran that ... meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interests," Bush said in Washington without elaborating. The bombing near the Imam Hussein shrine in the city of Kerbala also wounded 32 people - one of them a senior Shi'ite cleric, Sheikh Abdul Mehdi al-Karbalai, a close follower of Iraq's top cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Aides said Karbalai was the target. Previous attacks in Kerbala, including some claimed by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have seemed designed to trigger civil conflict. Shi'ite leaders regularly warn against retaliation. In the Sunni city of Samarra, where U.S. troops launched a major assault in October to crush a revolt, insurgents overran a police station and seized weapons. Numerous other bombings and ambushes produced another daily round of bloodletting across Sunni northern and western Iraq. The Pentagon acknowledged guerrillas were getting better at disrupting its forces despite reinforcements being sent to guard the election. U.S soldiers are being forced to rely more on air than road transport. "They have had a growing understanding that where they can affect us is in the logistics flow," said Central Command deputy head Lieutenant General Lance Smith. "They have gotten more effective in using (improvised explosive devices)." |
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