Iraq Watch: October 18, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - As the Iraqi Electoral Commission continued to count and record ballots from Saturday's national referendum the country also prepared for the start of former dictator Saddam Hussein's trial scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
Due to irregularities discovered in the voting results from certain provinces a complete audit is being conducted to insure correct results. The audit, however, will delay the announcment of the official results from the referendum until at least the end of the week.
The draft constitution appears to have received enough "yes" votes to pass although two key provinces, Ninevah and Diyala, are included in the audit. Some Sunni leaders in the two crucial provinces, where Sunni's hold a slight majority, have raised accusations of voter fraud and ballot stuffing.
The nation's minority Sunni's appear to have gotten a two-thirds "no" vote in the provinces of Anbar and Salahuddin. In order to officialy reject the proposed draft constitution Sunni's needed to receive a two-thirds "no" vote in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.
A day before the monumental trial is slated to start one of Saddam's defense lawyers, Khalil al-Duleimi, announced he would ask for a three-month adjournment during the initial phase of the former Iraqi leaders trail tomorrow.
The first charge Saddam Hussein is set to face is the relatively little-known alleged massacre of Shiite's from Dujail in 1982. Hundreds of Shiite's from the small town north of Baghdad were apprehended, imprisoned and/or executed following an assassination attempt against Hussein on a visit he made there is July of 1982. The attempt on the former dictator's life was believed to have been orchestrated by the Shiite Dawa Party.
Seven other people are also being charged in connection with the Dujail incident and are scheduled to appear in court along with Saddam on Wednesday. They include former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service or Mukhabarat.
In violence on Tuesday, Ayed Abdul Ghani, a top advisor to Iraq's industry minister and prominent Suni politician Osama al-Najafi, was ambushed and killed by insurgents while driving to work in eastern Baghdad at around 7:45 a.m. this morning.
Elsewhere, the deputy governor of the volatile al-Anbar province, Talib al- Dulaimi, was assassinated along with one of his bodyguards in Ramadi, 68 miles west of the capital, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three U.S. service members on Tuesday. Two Marines were killed by small-arms fire yesterday near Ar Rutbah while conducting combat operations. The other soldier, assigned to Task Force Freedom, was also killed by small-arms fire in the northern city of Mosul early this morning.
Also, the executed bodies of six members of the Mahdi army (loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr), who disappeared some 14 days ago, were found in a small pond near Balad, north of Baghdad. Three other bodies were discovered around the capital city on Tuesday.
Due to irregularities discovered in the voting results from certain provinces a complete audit is being conducted to insure correct results. The audit, however, will delay the announcment of the official results from the referendum until at least the end of the week.
The draft constitution appears to have received enough "yes" votes to pass although two key provinces, Ninevah and Diyala, are included in the audit. Some Sunni leaders in the two crucial provinces, where Sunni's hold a slight majority, have raised accusations of voter fraud and ballot stuffing.
The nation's minority Sunni's appear to have gotten a two-thirds "no" vote in the provinces of Anbar and Salahuddin. In order to officialy reject the proposed draft constitution Sunni's needed to receive a two-thirds "no" vote in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.
A day before the monumental trial is slated to start one of Saddam's defense lawyers, Khalil al-Duleimi, announced he would ask for a three-month adjournment during the initial phase of the former Iraqi leaders trail tomorrow.
The first charge Saddam Hussein is set to face is the relatively little-known alleged massacre of Shiite's from Dujail in 1982. Hundreds of Shiite's from the small town north of Baghdad were apprehended, imprisoned and/or executed following an assassination attempt against Hussein on a visit he made there is July of 1982. The attempt on the former dictator's life was believed to have been orchestrated by the Shiite Dawa Party.
Seven other people are also being charged in connection with the Dujail incident and are scheduled to appear in court along with Saddam on Wednesday. They include former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service or Mukhabarat.
In violence on Tuesday, Ayed Abdul Ghani, a top advisor to Iraq's industry minister and prominent Suni politician Osama al-Najafi, was ambushed and killed by insurgents while driving to work in eastern Baghdad at around 7:45 a.m. this morning.
Elsewhere, the deputy governor of the volatile al-Anbar province, Talib al- Dulaimi, was assassinated along with one of his bodyguards in Ramadi, 68 miles west of the capital, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three U.S. service members on Tuesday. Two Marines were killed by small-arms fire yesterday near Ar Rutbah while conducting combat operations. The other soldier, assigned to Task Force Freedom, was also killed by small-arms fire in the northern city of Mosul early this morning.
Also, the executed bodies of six members of the Mahdi army (loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr), who disappeared some 14 days ago, were found in a small pond near Balad, north of Baghdad. Three other bodies were discovered around the capital city on Tuesday.
posted by Todd @ 11:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home