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Islamic extremists: Iraqi vote 'satanic'
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 08:46
Soldiers, patients and prisoners began voting Monday in national elections, three days ahead of the general population, while insurgents denounced the balloting as a "satanic project" but did not threaten to attack polling stations.
The early voting went ahead despite the sound of detonations rumbling across the capital and at least 15 deaths in ongoing violence.
US President Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters but cautioned that the parliamentary elections "won't be perfect."
"Iraqis still have more difficult work ahead, and our coalition and a new Iraqi government will face many challenges," the president said in a speech in Philadelphia.
Asked about the number of Iraqi casualties from the war and the insurgency, Bush said: "I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis." White House counselor Dan Bartlett later said the number was not an official figure but that Bush was simply repeating public estimates reported in the media.
Hooded men carrying assault rifles check passing cars in Ramadi, Iraq Monday, Dec. 12, 2005, ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, which will select a National Assembly that will serve for four years. [AP] |
In a rare joint statement, Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced the election as a "satanic project" and said that "to engage in the so-called political process" violates "the legitimate policy approved by God."
The groups vowed to "continue our jihad (holy war) ... to establish an Islamic state ruled by the book (the Quran) and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad."
However, the statement contained no clear threat to disrupt voting as in the run-up to the Jan. 30 election and the Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site that often publishes extremist material.
The absence of a clear-cut threat could reflect the growing interest among Sunni Arabs, the foundation of the insurgency, to take part in the election. The Sunni decision to boycott the January ballot left parliament in the hands of Shiites and Kurds — a move which increased communal friction and cost the Sunnis considerable influence in drafting the constitution.
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