Iraqi militants issue warning ahead of election

Three militant groups warned Iraqis against voting in the January 30 elections, saying that people participating in the “dirty farce” risked attack.

The warning came a day after insurgents in the volatile city of Mosul, which has seen increased violence in recent weeks, launched a highly co-ordinated assault on a US military outpost. The United States said 25 insurgents were believed to have been killed and one American soldier died in the battle, which involved airstrikes by US warplanes.

The United States, which has said the vote must go forward, has repeatedly sought to portray recent attacks that have killed dozens of people as the acts of a reeling insurgency, not the work of a force that is gathering strength.

The radical Ansar al-Sunnah Army and two other insurgent groups issued a statement yesterday warning that democracy was un-Islamic. Democracy could lead to passing un-Islamic laws, such as permitting homosexual marriage, if the majority or people agreed to it, the statement said.

“Democracy is a Greek word meaning the rule of the people, which means that the people do what they see fit,” said the statement. “This concept is considered apostasy and defies the belief in one God – Muslims’ doctrine.”

Ansar al-Sunnah earlier posted a manifesto on its website saying democracy amounts to idolising human beings. The joint statement – also signed by the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahedeen Army – reiterated the threat that “anyone who accepts to take part in this dirty farce will not be safe”.

Insurgents have intensified their strikes against the security forces of Iraq’s US-installed interim government as part of a continuing campaign to disrupt the elections for a constitutional assembly.

The statements by the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgent groups seemed aimed at countering Shiite leaders’ claims that voting in the election is every Muslim’s duty. Shiites, who make up 60% of the population, hope to use the vote to power from minority Sunnis, who were favoured under Saddam Hussein.

Iraqis will elect a national assembly that is to write a new constitution.

Today Adel al-Lami, a senior member of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, denied a report by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel that all 700 workers for the electoral commission in Mosul resigned because they had been threatened.

“The report is not true,” al-Lami said. “Only two people resigned and they are the head of the (electoral) office in Mosul and an accountant” he said, adding that they stepped down “for personal reasons” and not because of threats.