Insurgents attempt to scare away Iraqi voters

AL-QAIDA ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi declared war on Iraq’s landmark elections yesterday in a warning intended to scare away voters a week before they go to the polls amid a raging insurgency.

However, interim prime minister Iyad Allawi vowed that his US-backed government would do everything possible to safeguard more than 5,000 voting stations against what he called "evil forces determined to hurt Iraq."

Zarqawi, a shadowy Jordanian militant who tops America's wanted list in Iraq, berated the country's Shi'ite majority for embracing the election and urged Saddam Hussein's once-dominant Sunni minority to wage a holy fight against it.