Iraq sets January poll date as violence rages

IRAQ yesterday chose January 30, 2005 for its first democratic election in decades, but violence in Sunni Muslim areas underlined the challenge of holding polls on time.

According to Iraq's timetable for democracy, polls must be held by end-January for a transitional parliament that will pick a new government and oversee the writing of a constitution.

Iraq's Shi'ite majority, which was long oppressed under Saddam Hussein and hopes the election will cement its influence, is insisting that the polls be held on schedule.

But many Sunni Arabs want the election to be delayed and say they will boycott it if it goes ahead in January.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has vowed to crush the rebels to allow voting across Iraq.

But insurgents have threatened to disrupt the elections, and the US military says it will raise troop numbers in Iraq by delaying the departure of some units. The controversy over the elections threatens to inflame sectarian and ethnic tensions.

Violence has surged in Sunni areas this month. Insurgents have attacked US and Iraqi security forces in several cities while the US military was preoccupied with a major offensive to drive insurgents out of the rebel stronghold of Falluja.

Just 60 km (35 miles) west of Falluja, gunmen mowed down a group of Iraqi National Guard troops, killing nine and wounding 17 after hijacking a convoy and lining the men up for execution. Elsewhere in Ramadi, guerrillas clashed again with US troops.

Near Latifiya, south of Baghdad, a Reuters reporter watched gunmen kill two off-duty guards and a policeman at a roadblock.

Meanwhile, in Mosul, the bodies of three men killed by insurgents were left lying on a street on Sunday, a day after US troops discovered the corpses of nine Iraqi soldiers.

All 12 bodies had been shot in the back of the head. Next to the group of three bodies was a paper saying they were Kurds. US forces have brought in hundreds of Kurdish National Guards to help police Mosul, irritating local Arabs.