More Than 50 Dead In Iraq Attacks
Insurgents carried out a string of suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks Tuesday that killed more than 50 people, the highest death toll in nearly two weeks, days ahead of Iraq's key vote on a new constitution.
The violence came as Iraqi leaders reached a deal on the constitution that at least one Sunni Arab party said Tuesday would allow it to reverse its rejection of the document and urge its supporters to approve it in next weekend's referendum.
The announcement was the first break in the ranks of Sunni Arab leaders, who have been campaigning hard to defeat the constitution at the polls in Saturday's vote. Shiite and Kurdish leaders support the document.
Copies of the 139-article constitution have already been printed and are being distributed to voters ahead of Saturday's vote. But the attempts to introduce changes, or append additions to it that could be announced to the public in the press, showed the eagerness to ward off a Sunni "no" vote that has the potential of defeating the charter. U.S. officials have been closely involved in the drive.
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A central Sunni demand was that the constitution, if passed, should be easily changed in the next parliament, in which Sunnis are hoping to have stronger representation and can try to reverse terms of federalism and other articles they oppose. Shiites and Kurds soundly rejected the idea.
"What they in effect want is for this constitution to be interim but we cannot accept that," said Ridha Jawad Taqi of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a top Shiite party in the government.
At the same time, Sunni-led insurgents are trying to wreck the vote with violence aimed at scaring voters from the polls.
The day's deadliest attack came when a suicide bomber plowed his explosives-packed vehicle into a crowded outdoor market in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, killing 30 Iraqi civilians and wounding 45, said Brig. Najim Abdullah, Tal Afar's police chief.
It was the second suicide bombing in the town, 93 miles east of the Syrian border, since U.S. and Iraqi forces waged a major offensive there in August, claiming to have killed some 200 insurgents and driving many others out.
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi army checkpoint in a western district, killing eight soldiers and a civilian, police said.
Other violence in Baghdad and elsewhere brought the day's death toll to 54, the highest since Sept. 29, when three car bombs exploded simultaneously in the mainly Shiite town of Balad, north of Baghdad, killing at least 102 people.
U.S. President George W. Bush said more attacks would likely follow in the three days remaining before the balloting.
"I expect violence because there's a group of terrorists and killers who want to stop the advance of democracy in Iraq," Bush said in an interview with NBC-TV's "Today" show. "I also expect people to vote, which is a remarkable achievement."
U.S. and Iraqi forces were clamping down in an attempt to ward off violence. A sweep by more than 600 troops in southern Baghdad early Tuesday detained 57 suspected militants and killed two, the U.S. military said.
American troops fanned out with Humvees, tanks and ground forces in the town of Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad where insurgent attacks are rampant in a bid to secure the vote. They blocked bridges and posted snipers on the roofs of schools and tall buildings, said Iraqi police Lt. Mohammed Al-Ubeydi of Ramadi.
On Thursday, the government plans to impose a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and close the international airport and the borders, and use of vehicles will be banned on the day of the voting in an attempt to prevent car bombs.
But in some regions, voters have not even had a chance to read the constitution they'll be deciding on. Around 1,000 election workers were heading to Anbar province, the vast western region that is the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, and of the insurgency, to start passing out copies of the document.
In Mosul, copies also had yet to be distributed, officials there said. Mosul is in one of several provinces Sunni Arab leaders are hoping to swing to a "no" vote to defeat the constitution.