World

Iraqis Urged To Defy Insurgency

October 10, 2005 / 11:04 AM EDT / CBS/AP

The government on Sunday urged Iraqis to vote in next week's constitutional referendum, condemning insurgent groups for demanding a boycott and for killing hundreds of civilians to wreck the ballot.

The U.S. military also announced the death of another Marine during one of two offensives currently occurring in western Iraq aimed at rooting out insurgents from ahead of Saturday's vote. The Marine was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, where about 500 U.S. and 400 Iraqi troops were conducting Operation Mountaineer, the military said.

Sunni-led insurgent groups are trying to reduce voter turnout with a wave of attacks, killing at least 312 people in suicide bombings, drive-by shootings and assassinations.

"These insurgents are like rats spreading plague among the people," said Laith Kubba, the main Iraqi government spokesman. "Rats are very small, but the disease they spread is horrible. Iraq should be rid of these dirty rats."

The referendum has divided Iraqis, with leaders of the Shiite Muslim majority and Kurds supporting the constitution and Sunni Arabs opposing it, saying it will fragment Iraq.

The Iraqi and U.S. governments are working hard to get the measure approved, but Kubba said even minority Sunni Arabs who oppose the document should take advantage of democratic reforms and vote "no."

Sunnis can defeat the charter with a two-thirds "no" vote in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Sunnis have a majority in four provinces.

Iraqis have begun distributing 5 million copies of the constitution ahead of the vote, often leaving them at shops that act as ration centers where most Iraqis get government-subsidized food. But some were refusing to participate, fearing attacks by insurgents.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police and soldiers left copies of the constitution at schools and bus stations Sunday, said provincial government official Hafiz Abdel-Aziz. "We decided not to distribute them through food ration agents for security reasons," he told The Associated Press.

The same fears were prompting officials to distribute tens of thousands of copies of the document at schools, mosques and government buildings in the northern province of Kirkuk.

In Other Developments:

On Sunday, three Iraqi contractors and government bodyguard were killed by gunmen in three separate attacks in the cities of Baghdad, Beiji and Mosul, police said.

In the southern city of Basra, a suicide car bomb killed a woman and a child and wounded three Iraqis, police said. It exploded Sunday morning outside a three-story apartment building used by the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade, a Shiite militia linked to one of the main parties in the Iraqi government. Former Basra Gov. Hassan al-Rashid, a senior local leader of the brigade, escaped injury, said police Capt. Mushtak Kadim. The Badr Brigade is the military wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, the largest Shiite party in the Iraqi government.

It was not immediately known who had carried out the attack in Basra, a mostly Shiite city where the majority of Britain's 8,500 forces are based.

Despite earlier claims that British soldiers had created better security in southern Iraq than other areas beset by Sunni-led insurgent groups, militias appear to have been growing in power in the mostly Shiite region, infiltrating police forces and political organizations, and allegedly attacking British and U.S. forces.

Fighting also has occurred in this region between the Badr Brigade and other Shiite militias, including the al-Mahdhi militia, which is associated with the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The Marine's death in Operation Mountaineer brings to nine the number of U.S. service members killed in recent U.S.-led offensives and to 1,953 the number who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Operation River Gate also was under way in Anbar province, a Sunni-led insurgency stronghold where Operation Iron Fist was recently concluded. A third offensive, Operation Saratoga, recently began in northern Iraq.

A delegation from the Arab League arrived in Iraq on Saturday to lay the groundwork for an Iraqi "reconciliation conference" it hopes to hold after the referendum vote. It was the first time the pan-Arab organization has tried to take a direct role in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

During his news conference Sunday, Kubba urged the league to improve its relations with Iraq by following the example of the United Nations and opening an office in Baghdad.

A suspected Taliban bomber wounded four British officials Sunday when he rammed a car laden with explosives into their armored vehicle in southern Afghanistan, the latest in the spate of suicide attacks, authorities said.

The assault, which comes three weeks after landmark legislative elections, underscored the terrorist threat still facing Afghanistan as it slowly moves toward democracy. It also added to fears that insurgents here are copying tactics used in Iraq.