Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
BAGHDAD, Oct 15 (AFP) - Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three injured in a roadside bomb attack just hours before voting began in Iraq's referendum on a new constitution, an interior ministry official said.
The incident took place near the town of Al-Sahedia, which lies northeast of Baghdad close to the Iranian border, as the soldiers were inspecting polling stations.
West of Baghdad, a civilian was shot dead during an attack on police near a polling station, and a woman was injured by police in a separate incident as policemen fired at a suspicious vehicle.
When polls opened, gunmen fired on a number of voting stations in northern and western Baghdad, chief electoral official Adil al-Lami said.
The attacks followed four similar incidents late Thursday on stations in southern parts of the capital.
Armed insurgents prevented voters from reaching the polls in three central neighborhoods in the main northern city of Mosul, witnesses told an AFP reporter.
The men waved assault rifles and threatened to attack the polling stations.
They also handed passers-by leaflets that called for voters to boycott the "infidel constitution." The leaflets had a picture of a donkey casting a vote in front of a large Uncle Sam figure. The ballot box, which read "box for idiots," dropped the vote directly to a shredder.
Main power lines in Iraq were sabotaged after sundown Friday, plunging Baghdad and the southern city of Basra into darkness. Electricity had not been fully restored in both cities as voting began Saturday.
Meanwhile, firefighters battled a blaze of undetermined origin in a petrochemical complex in the Khor al-Zubair region, southeast of Basra, the Southern Oil Company reported.
The incident took place near the town of Al-Sahedia, which lies northeast of Baghdad close to the Iranian border, as the soldiers were inspecting polling stations.
West of Baghdad, a civilian was shot dead during an attack on police near a polling station, and a woman was injured by police in a separate incident as policemen fired at a suspicious vehicle.
When polls opened, gunmen fired on a number of voting stations in northern and western Baghdad, chief electoral official Adil al-Lami said.
The attacks followed four similar incidents late Thursday on stations in southern parts of the capital.
Armed insurgents prevented voters from reaching the polls in three central neighborhoods in the main northern city of Mosul, witnesses told an AFP reporter.
The men waved assault rifles and threatened to attack the polling stations.
They also handed passers-by leaflets that called for voters to boycott the "infidel constitution." The leaflets had a picture of a donkey casting a vote in front of a large Uncle Sam figure. The ballot box, which read "box for idiots," dropped the vote directly to a shredder.
Main power lines in Iraq were sabotaged after sundown Friday, plunging Baghdad and the southern city of Basra into darkness. Electricity had not been fully restored in both cities as voting began Saturday.
Meanwhile, firefighters battled a blaze of undetermined origin in a petrochemical complex in the Khor al-Zubair region, southeast of Basra, the Southern Oil Company reported.