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BAGHDAD – AFP BAGHDAD – AFP An aide to Iraq’s top Shiite cleric has been murdered barely a fortnight before elections the Shiites are tipped to win, while gunmen seized a Turkish businessman and killed seven Iraqis outside a Baghdad hotel.As the country prepared for its first free and fair polls in half a century despite the relentess …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/SPAN>An aide to Iraq’s top Shiite cleric has been murdered barely a fortnight before elections the Shiites are tipped to win, while gunmen seized a Turkish businessman and killed seven Iraqis outside a Baghdad hotel.
As the country prepared for its first free and fair polls in half a century despite the relentess bloodshed across the country, US-led forces stepped up operations against insurgents, rounding up almost 50 suspects.
<\/SPAN>
An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, his son and four bodyguards were murdered Wednesday night after they left prayers in the lawless Sunni-majority town of <\/SPAN>
Sheikh Mahmud al-Madahaini had been the target of several threats and attempted assassinations in the past, the official added.
Salman Pak lies on the highway linking the capital with Kut, further to the southeast. It is a lawless area where armed men hijack trucks and carry out kidnappings.
Sistani, the spiritual leader of the country’s majority Shiites, is not running for office but has emerged as the kingmaker after he blessed the United Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of political and religious parties.
A Turkish businessman was meanwhile kidnapped outside his central <\/SPAN>
“At <\/SPAN>
“Today, 10 armed men in two cars were waiting for them. They machine-gunned the bus, killing all seven occupants, and kidnapped the Turk.”
US and Iraqi forces were continuing to crack down on rebels in a bid to thwart attacks in the run-up to the January 30 vote that they insist will go ahead despite the deadly insurgency.
The <\/SPAN>
“The purpose was to kill or capture 17 known anti-Iraqi force members. The 17 wanted AIF members were captured along with 14 others,” it said in a statement, adding that the raid also netted weapons and money.
In Dhuluiya, near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit north of <\/SPAN>
The unrelenting dose of daily car bombs and assassinations has forced a hard reality check on the White House and US-backed interim government.
Asked if he agreed with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that violence will make voting impossible in some areas of the war-torn country, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday: “We all recognize that the election is not going to be perfect.”
“This is the first time Iraqis will be able to freely choose their leaders. It’s for a transitional government, and it’s one of three elections that will take place over the course of this year,” he said.
“And so we’re going to do everything we can to help the Iraqi people and the interim government ensure as broad a participation as possible in this upcoming election,” said McClellan.
The resistance movement has been fanned in part by widespread concern among the Sunni Arab elite, which dominated Saddam’s regime and all previous Iraqi governments, that the new parliament will be dominated by the long-oppressed Shiite majority.
The elections are expected to be the focus of talks in <\/SPAN>
Meanwhile, McClellan confirmed <\/SPAN>
A report by Duelfer’s Iraq Survey group, which is to be released in the coming weeks, will resemble a September draft in which the inspector said there were no such arms, the spokesman said.
The report contradicted one of US President George W. Bush’s chief reasons for the war that led to the toppling of Saddam in April 2003 and ushered in the current era of chaos.
Bush told ABC television the invasion of <\/SPAN>
In other violence across the country, a Turkish truck driver was gunned down by assailants Thursday near the rebel bastion of <\/SPAN>
An Iraqi truck driver was killed when gunmen opened fire on a convoy being escored by US troops near <\/SPAN>
And a Communist member of the Diyala provincial council was shot dead near Baquba, his family said. Muwayad Sami was the third Iraqi communist to be murdered in the past two weeks.
In other violence, saboteurs overnight blew up a pipeline linking oilfields near <\/SPAN>
An official of the Northern Oil Co in <\/SPAN>
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\n13-1-2005 <\/SPAN>
\nܢܗܪܝܐ <\/SPAN><\/P>
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