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IRAQI officials have
unveiled plans to deploy 100,000 police and soldiers
to stave off a bloodbath on election day, as US
President George W. Bush said polls would go on as
scheduled on January 30.
The deadly violence came as 26 people, including a
US soldier, died in battles between US troops and
Iraqi insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, and
30 people died when a booby-trapped house in Baghdad
exploded.
A dozen Iraqi deaths yesterdar brought the three-day
toll to well over 100.
And the grim business of hostage-taking resurfaced,
with two Lebanese businessmen kidnapped in an
upmarket neighborhood of Baghdad.
The Iraqi Government meanwhile announced that a
senior aide to Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
whose militants are behind many deadly attacks and
killings of hostages, had been captured in Baghdad.
Despite the volatile situation, Bush insisted
elections must go ahead as planned on January 30,
even as an Islamic militant group reiterated a
threat to sabotage the poll.
A group linked to al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna, which
claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attack
on US troops in Mosul last week, said in a statement
on its website that it would target polling
stations.
"It's very important that these elections proceed,"
Mr Bush said.
US and Iraqi officials have said they hope an
increase in offensives against insurgents, coupled
with airtight security, will allow voting to go
ahead.
Brigadier General Erv Lessel, the US-led military's
deputy director of operations, bluntly listed what
he expected of insurgents.
"They will ... try to disrupt the process by
attacking election officials as well as those Iraqi
citizens who have volunteered to be candidates and
campaign in the political process," he said.
"There will be attempted attacks against polling
places and polling locations."
Adel Lami, a ranking officer on Iraq's Independent
Electoral Commission, said "about 100,000 police and
national guard will be mobilised".
Brg-Gen Lessel said US forces would increase their
operations ahead of January 30 to disrupt the
insurgency, with its turbulent mix of Saddam Hussein
loyalists, criminals, Islamic fundamentalists and
renegade tribal factions.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, dozens of Kurds
protested against violence in their community and to
demand that regional elections be postponed.
Iraqi voters are to choose a transitional 275-seat
National Assembly, a parliament for the
semi-autonomous Kurdish region and 18 provincial
councils.
Meanwhile, the interim government revealed that a
US-led raid in recent weeks netted Fadil Hussein
Ahmed al-Kurdi, a 26-year-old Kurd suspected of
aiding Zarqawi, and two other suspects.
A statement said Kurdi was also known as Abu Ubaida
al-Kurdi or simply Ridha.
The Government announced on Wednesday the capture of
Abu Marwan, a "key leader" of the Zarqawi network in
Mosul, on December 23.
Across the country, at least 15 Iraqis have been
killed in various attacks by insurgents since
Wednesday night, Iraqi security officials said.
Three border policemen were gunned down in Baquba
north of Baghdad while on leave, and the son of
local police chief was kidnapped.
In the capital, an Iraqi army officer was killed
while strolling in the street.
Four civilians were killed in an ambush at Shorgat,
north of the capital, while further north two
civilians were killed and four hurt when a bomb
exploded near their car as it followed a national
guard convoy.
Two more Iraqis died and four were wounded when they
tried to break through a national guard roadblock in
Syniya.
A woman was killed and three people wounded by a
bomb along the road between Baghdad and Balad.
In Samarra, a national guardsman died and four
others were wounded in an ambush.
Unrest also hit the country's infrastructure, with a
mortar attack late Thursday igniting a fire at the
Dura refinery in a southwest Baghdad suburb.
The refinery feeds a power plant that provides
electricity to the capital and surrounding areas.
After an initial blaze, the fire was contained, a US
military spokesperson said.
Masked gunmen also kidnapped two Lebanese
businessmen from their home in Baghdad's upscale
Mansur neighborhood, police and Lebanese officials
said.
About 30 Lebanese working for private companies in
Iraq have been kidnapped and later freed. However,
in September, one was killed by his captors and
three others killed during an attempted kidnap.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au
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