Constitution Headed For Approval

Iraq's landmark constitution seemed assured of passage after initial results Sunday showed that a strong push by minority Sunni Arabs to veto fell short — a major step in the attempt to establish a democratic government that could set the stage for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Opponents failed to secure the necessary two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraqi's 18 provinces, according to counts that local officials provided to The Associated Press. In the crucial central provinces with mixed ethnic and religious populations, enough Shiites and Kurds voted to stymie the Sunni bid to reject the constitution.

In an attempt to quell the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the city of Ramadi, a hotbed of Sunni-Arab insurgents west of Baghdad, killing around 70 Iraqis, the military said Monday. The military said all the dead were militants, though witnesses said at least 39 were civilians.

Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday by a bomb in Ramadi, the military announced. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops since a Sept. 29 bomb blast in the same town also killed five soldiers. The deaths brought the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003 to at least 1,975, according to an AP count.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree setting Dec. 15 for Iraqis to go to the polls again, this time to elect a new parliament. If the constitution indeed passed, the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 will install a new government by Dec. 31. If the charter failed, the parliament will be temporary, tasked with drawing up a new draft on which to vote.

But the outcome could further divide the nation, with many Sunnis fearing the new decentralized government will deprive them of their fair share in the country's vast oil wealth. Large numbers of Sunnis voted "no," and some of their leaders were already rejecting the apparent result.

While a strong Sunni turnout in Saturday's referendum suggested a desire among many to participate in Iraq's new political system, there were fears that anger at being ruled under a constitution they oppose could push some into supporting the Sunni-led insurgency.

"If the constitution was passed, the attacks will definitely rise against the occupation forces, and the security situation is going to be worse," said Sheik Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, a prominent cleric with the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which government officials accuse of links to the insurgency.

CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that even a positive result will not necessarily mean that politics can prevail over bullets. There are signs that Iraq is in the beginning stages of ethnic cleansing,

Pizzey reports that in Baghdad's mixed neighborhoods, whoever is in the minority is under pressure to leave.

President Bush congratulated Iraqis on the referendum — which across the country saw few attacks and no deaths of voters in violence — and said the new constitution was a victory for opponents of terrorism.

"The vote today in Iraq is in stark contrast to the attitude, the philosophy and strategy of al Qaeda, their terrorist friends and killers," Bush said.

The constitution is a crucial step in Iraq's transition to democracy after two decades of dictatorship under Saddam. Washington was hoping it passes so Iraqis can form a legitimate, representative government, tame the insurgency and enable the 150,000 U.S. troops to begin withdrawing.

Lt. Todd Wood told CBS News correspondent Lara Logan that at 75 percent, voter turnout in the Sunni heartland of Tikrit had exceeded their highest expectations.

"Once they were convinced that the security was there and it was a safe vote, then they started coming out in droves," Wood said.

On Sunday, U.S. military helicopters, Humvees and armored vehicles were helping transport the last ballot boxes from polling stations to counting centers in the provincial capitals. Those centers were making initial counts, then were to truck the ballots to Baghdad for the final tallying, which was likely to begin on Monday and to last into Tuesday.

In Baghdad's main counting center, workers tallied votes from the region around the capital. The center was shaken Sunday when militants fired two mortars into the Green Zone, the heavily guarded district where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and the counting site are located. But the mortars did not hit the center and caused no casualties or significant damage.

Provinces in the south, where most of Iraq's Shiite majority are concentrated, racked up big "yes" numbers — over 90 percent in favor in most places. Results were not yet available from Kurdistan, but the Kurdish community strongly supports the charter.

Still, despite a call by their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to support the charter, Shiite participation in the south was far lower turnout than parliament elections in January, when huge numbers of Shiite voters — more than 80 percent — celebrated as they went to the polls to mark their new dominance of the country.

Between 54 and 58 percent of voters showed up Saturday in most parts of the south, according to U.N. elections chief Carina Perelli. The drop could reflect a belief that the constitution's victory was a sure thing or a vein of discontent among Shiites with their leaders in the government.

"Why should I care? Nothing has changed since we have elected this government: no security, no electricity, no water," said Saad Ibrahim, a Shiite resident of Baghdad's Karrada district who passed on voting. "The constitution will not change that. The main issue is not getting this constitution passed, but how to stop terrorism."

Although U.S. officials played an intense role in mediating negotiations over the draft constitution, they had no role in the counting process, run by an Iraqi elections commission.

Still, many Sunnis expressed helplessness in their new status as the weaker party in a nation they once dominated under Saddam.

"Whatever happens or will happen in politics has nothing to do with the will of the people. It comes from the political elite who run Iraq along with the Americans out of the Green Zone in Baghdad," said Zuhair Qassam al-Khashab, a mathematics professor in Mosul who voted "no."

Sunni Arabs turned out in force in some areas Saturday, a stark contrast to January's elections, which they boycotted because they believed the political process was giving unfair power to the Shiite majority. That move cost them politically, leaving them with a minuscule presence in parliament.

One man who voted "yes" in Mosul said his fellow Sunnis should campaign hard for the Dec. 15 vote.

"We have to move through this period to the next stage, and we can do it by organized dialogue," said Ayad Abdul Razzaq, 45.

That is the reaction U.S. and Iraqi leaders are hoping for, and the Shiite-dominated government insisted it would make room for the Sunnis.

"We know that there is a level of polarization," said Laith Kubba, the chief government spokesman. "Iraq is one big family, and we know that if a part of the family is not happy we cannot live in the same house."