Election calm shattered in Iraq

Gunmen killed two relatives of a senior Kurdish official and 14 others died in a string of bombings and shootings overnight and today, shattering three days of relative calm that followed the country’s first election for a full-term parliament.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, two relatives of an official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties, were shot late last night as they walked near their house, police said.

They were identified as Dhiab Hamad al-Hamdani and his son – the uncle and nephew of party official Khodr Hassan al-Hamdani. The PUK is led by President Jalal Talabani.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed three police officers and wounded two, while another left one policeman dead and two wounded in the northern town of Tuz, 68 miles south of Kirkuk.

Unidentified gunmen in separate incidents killed a police Lt. Colonel and an Interior Ministry employee as they were driving to work in western Baghdad. In another, four police officers were seriously injured when their squad car was sprayed with gunfire and tea seller was shot and killed in the same area.

A police captain and his driver were shot and killed in south Baghdad while two people, including an Interior Ministry driver, were killed in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City slum.

A suicide bomber killed a police officer and injured another two when he blew up a bomb in a mini van at a checkpoint along the a highway in eastern Baghdad near the Interior Ministry.

A roadside bomb killed at least one woman and injured 11 other the northern Shiite neighbourhood of Kazimiyah, police said.

Police also said one suicide bomber was killed in Amiriyah, about 25 miles west of Baghdad when his explosives-laden belt prematurely detonated. Another unidentified man was found shot dead in east Baghdad.

Today’s attacks came after authorities eased stringent security measures put in place for the parliamentary election. Traffic returned to normal on the first full working day since the vote. A ban on vehicles was lifted and the country’s borders reopened, although the frontier with Syria remained closed. Authorities said it would reopen in a few days, but did not give a reason for the delay.

Millions of Iraqis cast their ballots on Thursday to choose a four-year parliament in a vote that passed peacefully around the country. Although no official figures have been released, authorities estimate just under 70% of Iraq’s 15 million registered voters cast ballots.

The big turnout – particularly among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority which boycotted the election of a temporary legislature last January – has boosted hopes that increasing political participation may undermine the insurgency and allow US troops to begin pulling out next year.

Shiites account for about 60% of the country’s 27 million people, compared to 20% for Sunni Arabs.

Both Shiite and Sunni political leaders have said they will likely have to form a coalition government together and both sides have expressed a willingness to do so.

Shiite Arabs and Kurds, two groups that were oppressed under the Sunni Arab-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein, allied to form the interim government that has ruled since last spring.