U.S. security forces guard a warehouse as Iraqi election workers wait for more ballot boxes to arrive, in Hilla, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2005. Iraqis were to vote in national elections Jan. 30.
An Iraqi police officer guards a polling station in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2005.
An Iraqi election worker carries a ballot box after its arrival at a warehouse in Hilla, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2005.
Iraqi Tactical Support Unit soldiers go out on patrol in Al Alamara, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2005, in the run-up to the elections. The unit will be providing security in the area during the vote.
Iraqi boys play soccer below a poster advertising the Jan. 30 general elections, which reads, "To grant Iraqi children better Iraq," in Baghdad, Jan. 11, 2005.
Posters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani are seen outside a mosque in central Baghdad, Jan. 24, 2005. The prominent Shiite cleric is by far the most dominant figure in the vote, and the slate of candidates he has endorsed was likely to fare best, with thousands of election posters bearing his image being plastered across the country. Many Iraqis said they'd vote just because he said they should.
An Iraqi man stirs his morning tea below a poster of Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, outside a tea shop in Bagdad's Shiite neighborhood of al Kademiya, Jan. 8, 2005.
An Iraqi policeman looks at a United Iraqi Alliance campaign poster reading "We will save our children," Jan. 25, 2005.
Volunteers paste election posters of Assembly of Independent Democrats candidate Adnan Pachachi on a wall in Baghdad, Jan. 24, 2005.
Baghdad resident walks across an overpass above the electoral banner featuring the portrait of Interim Iraqi prime minister Ahmed Allawi, with text reading, "Strong Leadership," Jan. 15, 2005. Allawi is the head of the United Iraqi Alliance, which is fielding more than 200 candidates in the elections.
Iraqi students sit below posters advertising the elections, near the university compound in Baghdad, Jan. 9, 2005.
U.S. Army soldiers remove a poster from the outside of a mosque in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 20, 2005. The poster bore a message threatening Iraqis who vote.
A U.S. soldier photographs boxes containing ballots for upcoming Iraqi elections, in the warehouse at Baghdad's international airport, Jan. 18, 2005.
An unidentified British Army officer, left, discusses security plans for the elections with some of his Iraqi colleages, at the Permanent Joint Operations Centre in Basra, Southern Iraq, Jan. 24, 2005. Security plans were being adjusted ahead of the Jan. 30 vote.
Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer arrives for a press conference in Baghdad, Dec. 1, 2004. Al-Yawer threw his support behind holding national elections on time on Jan. 30, saying the government had a legal and moral obligation to stick to that date.
Clerics and tribal elders gather at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad to call for unity among Sunni and Shiite muslims and to discuss the future of Iraqi governance, Feb. 19, 2004. U.S. and Iraqi officials were awaiting an announcement by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the feasibility of holding legislative elections in Iraq before June 30.