| BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- On the eve of Iraq's landmark elections, two Americans were killed in a rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, U.S. military officials said.
A U.S. military member and an American civilian were killed and four others wounded. The attack came just after Iraqi officials urged voters to ignore the escalating violence and defy the insurgency by voting on Sunday.
About an hour after the strike on the embassy, insurgents attacked three polling stations in northern Baghdad, wounding four Iraqi army soldiers and one Iraqi police officer, according to an Iraqi police official.
Earlier Saturday, at least eight people -- three Iraqi soldiers and five Iraqi civilians -- died in two bombings at the Joint Coordination Center, a U.S.-Iraqi military coordination facility in Khanaqin, a Kurdish town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Baquba near the Iranian border, authorities said. Seven other people were wounded in that incident.
In another attack on by insurgents Saturday, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in western Baghdad, according to a military news release.
In urging people to vote, a spokesman for the Iraqi Interim Authority said high voter participation "will foil the terrorists."
"This is the first time in the region's history where Iraq is heading towards democracy," said Thair al-Naqib, spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "Your votes are very important, you should cast your votes in order to elect your leadership and defeat the terrorists."
He accused insurgents of trying to "foil democracy."
"Your participation will foil the terrorists," he said. "The elections are a great success for the people -- it will represent the rule of law, not the rule of violence."
Beefed-up security
Security has been strengthened in preparation for voters casting ballots at more than 30,000 polling stations spread across the nation.
Iraqi police and the U.S. military closed and locked down bridges across Baghdad and a state of emergency was extended for 30 days across Iraq, except in Kurdish regions.
Iraqi officials also have imposed a ban on vehicular traffic near polling sites, travel restrictions and a nighttime curfew.
Al-Naqib said authorities expect a attacks to try to derail Sunday's political process, but he added that extensive security measures have been put into place to combat the insurgency.
"We are sure the elections will go ahead," he said. "I encourage the Iraqi people to overcome their fear and head towards the polling stations because it is a historic occasion for Iraqis."
More than 14.2 million Iraqis 18 and older are registered to vote -- although how many will show up at the polls remains a looming question, particularly in areas of central Iraq dominated by Sunni Arabs where insurgent attacks have been carried out just about daily.
One of Iraq's top Sunni Arab figures, Adnan Pachachi, former president of the Iraqi Governing Council, said Friday he was hopeful for a 20 percent turnout in four Sunni Arab provinces -- Baghdad, Mosul, Anbar and Tikrit -- despite security fears and calls by some Sunni groups for a boycott of the vote.
In leaflets distributed in neighborhoods in north Baghdad, insurgents issued what they called a "final warning" to residents to stay away from the polls, vowing to "wash Baghdad streets with voters' blood." The warning was not signed by any particular group.
In Sunday's balloting, Iraqis will be electing a 275-member National Assembly, which will draft a new constitution and pick the country's next president.
They will also select 18 provincial councils. Residents in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region will also elect a Kurdish parliament.
The election marks a pivotal moment not only for the Iraqi people, but also for President Bush and his international allies, who sent in troops to topple Saddam Hussein only to find themselves battling an intractable insurgency that has claimed nine times as many military lives as the invasion itself.
"In the face of assassination, brutal violence and calculated intimidation, Iraqis continue to prepare for the elections and to campaign for their candidates," Bush said in his Saturday radio address.
"They know what democracy will mean for their country: a future of peace, stability, prosperity and justice for themselves and for their children."
He added, "As democracy takes hold in Iraq, America's mission there will continue."
The expat vote
Meanwhile, thousands of exuberant Iraqi expatriates are casting their ballots at polling centers in 14 countries, stretching from Australia to the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
More than 84,000 of the 280,000 registered expatriates cast ballots on the first day Friday, with the voting continuing through Sunday.
"It's the greatest day in my life, the greatest feeling ever in my life," said Montador Almosawi, who voted Friday in Southgate, Michigan, near Detroit. "My feeling is that I'm doing something for my country."
The head of the Independent Election Commission of Iraq, Abed Hussein al-Hinwandi, said all of the polling stations in Iraq were prepared to welcome voters at 7 a.m. Sunday (11 p.m. Saturday ET).
In the National Assembly election, voters will cast their votes for one of 111 political slates on the ballot. Each group will get a number of seats in the new assembly proportional to its vote nationwide.
Likely leading coalitions
Two broad-based slates -- the United Iraqi Alliance and the Iraqi List -- are expected to lead the vote.
The United Iraqi Alliance is a Shiite-dominated slate of candidates backed by a leading cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
While most of its support comes from the country's Shiite majority -- about 60 percent of the population -- the alliance also includes some smaller Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups.
Included in the alliance is the Iraqi National Congress, led by Ahmad Chalabi, who had a close relationship with Washington before the war but later fell out of favor after intelligence he provided about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq proved to be false.
The Iraqi List is led by Allawi, who became the face of Iraqi government after sovereignty was restored in June. The slate contains both Shiite and Sunni Arab candidates but is largely secular.
Also likely to do well in the vote is the Kurdistan Alliance List, a united slate that includes the two main Kurdish political parties and nine smaller Kurdish parties.
Kurds make up less than 20 percent of the population, but they are expected to vote in large numbers because of a stable security situation in the northern part of the country where they are concentrated.
Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq under Saddam despite making up less than a quarter of the population, are likely to see an erosion in their political position after the vote.
Not only is the security situation tenuous in many Sunni Arab areas, but two influential Sunni groups -- the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Association of Muslim Scholars -- are boycotting the election.
However, interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, himself a Sunni Arab, is participating, heading a slate called The Iraqis. | |
