CBS/AP/ February 11, 2009, 7:02 PM

Iraqis Adopt Constitution

John Edwards enters the federal courthouse, Friday, May 18, 2012, in Greensboro, N.C., before jurors starts deliberations in his campaign finance corruption trial. / AP Photo/The News & Observer, Shawn Rocco

Iraq's landmark constitution was adopted by a majority of voters during the country's Oct. 15 referendum, election officials said Tuesday. But a prominent Sunni politician called the balloting "a farce."

The U.S. military also announced the deaths of two Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in Baghdad, bringing the number of American service members killed in the war to 1,999.

Results released by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq showed that Sunni Arabs, who had sharply opposed the draft document, failed to produce the two-thirds "no" vote they would have needed in at least three of Iraq's 18 provinces to defeat it.

The commission, which had been auditing the referendum results for 10 days, said at a news conference in Baghdad that Ninevah province had produced a "no" vote of only 55 percent. Only two other mostly Sunni Arab provinces — Salahuddin and Anbar — had voted no by two-thirds or more.

The constitution, which many Kurds and majority Shiites strongly support, is considered another major step in the country's democratic transformation, clearing the way for the election of a new Iraqi parliament on Dec. 15. Such steps are considered important in any decision about the future withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Iraq.

In other developments:

Two suicide car bombs exploded Tuesday in the generally peaceful Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, killing 12 people. Al Qaeda in Iraq, the country's most feared insurgent group, claimed responsibility for both in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.

Iraqi and U.S. forces refortified a hotel complex where many Western journalists live in central Baghdad after

three suicide car bombs exploded (video)

a day earlier. Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal told The Associated Press that 17 people were killed — most hotel guards and passers-by — and 10 wounded in the attack. In an Internet posting, Al Qaeda in Iraq takes credit for the attacks.

Insurgents used four bombs and seven shootings to kill six people a 7-year-old boy, two Iraqi soldiers and three policemen and wound 45 Iraqis, most policemen, officials said. A 10-year-old girl was among nine civilians wounded in the attack.

Militants shot a policewoman in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Iraq's top two coalition partners in Iraq, the United States and Britain, praised Iraqis for adopting the constitution.

The White House called it "a landmark day in the history of Iraq," reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller.

Spokesman Scott McClellan offered U.S. congratulations to the Iraqi people for approving their constitution, calling it an encouraging sign that the political process in Iraq continues to move forward.