Iraq Watch: January 3, 2006

Violence Continues; Vote Results Announcment Delayed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgent violence continued Tuesday as the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) announced that the final vote results from the December 15 parliamentary elections will not be released for another two weeks due to an international investigation into possible voting fraud.

IECI member Safwat Rashid told the AP that final voting tabulations wouldn't be released until the international team completes its meticulous work. Hussein Hindawi, another IECI member, however, said that the commission had completed its own internal investigation into the nearly 2,000 voting complaints - the results of which are expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Preliminary voting tabulations showed the conservative Shiite bloc the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) commanding a large lead overall.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced that a Navy F-14 had dropped a precision-guided bomb on three suspected militants holed up in a house near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. An unmanned surveillance aircraft spotted the individuals earlier planting what appeared to be a roadside bomb. Although the U.S. military did not comment on any possible deaths, local citizens claimed that a family of at least six was killed in the bombing. The air strike stoked the anger of locals in the predominately Sunni town. Hussein al-Falluji, a leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), told Reuters, "Once again the occupiers have shown their barbarism. They never learn from their mistakes... People's resentment is increasing." At least six other houses were damaged in the aerial bombardment according to The Washington Post who put the death toll at 12.

In further bloodshed Tuesday, five people - including three construction workers - were gunned down in two separate incidents in western Baghdad. Elsewhere in the capital, two Interior Ministry bodyguards were slain by insurgents. Also, Tahsin Hadi Ali, a senior official in the Iraqi government auditing body was assassinated as he drove to work on Tuesday.