Baghdad blasts kill 17 as voters go to the polls

A series of explosions targeted voters across Baghdad killing at least 17 people today, heightening tension ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Insurgents have repeatedly threatened to use violence to disrupt the elections, which will help determine who will oversee the country as US forces go home.

Two of the blasts hit voters outside polling stations.

“Terrorists wanted to hamper the elections, thus they started to blow themselves up in the streets,” said Deputy Interior Minister Ayden Khalid Qader.

He said that because the bombers were not able to reach polling places due to security measures, they were targeting voters on their way to them.

Many of the victims were believed to be security personnel – the main group to cast their ballots during early voting today since they will be working on election day.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are expected to take part in today’s early voting, a one-day session designed for those who might not be able to get to the polls on Sunday, when the rest of the country votes.

Early voters also included hospital patients and medical workers.

In the first of today’s attacks a Katyusha rocket killed seven people in the Hurriya district about 500 yards from a polling station.

The second attack took place in the Mansour district when a bomber blew himself up near soldiers lining up to vote at a nearby polling station, killing six people and wounding 18.

In the third blast, another suicide bomber attacked policemen waiting to vote, killing four people and wounding 14 others.

US and Iraqi officials have warned that insurgents could launch attacks in an attempt to disrupt the vote. Yesterday a string of suicide bombings in the city of Baqouba left 32 Iraqis dead.

Sunday’s elections are only Iraq’s second for a full parliamentary term since the 2003 invasion.

At a high school in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood, police and military officials crowded in to the building to cast their ballots, then wiped the purple ink – used to prevent people from voting twice – from their fingers.

Many expressed frustration at the government and a desire for change.

Others said they were excited about being able to vote and help usher in a new political era in Iraq.