Iraq Watch: February 10, 2006

Mosque Bombed; Poll Results Released

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Only hours after the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) officially released the December 15 parliamentary election results a car bomb exploded outside a Sunni mosque in Baghdad's southern Dora district.

The remotely detonated car bomb, which was parked only yards from the Iskan al-Shaabi mosque, killed at least eight worshippers and injured dozens more. Approximately an hour after the explosion, as onlookers amassed at the scene, a carload of masked gunmen opened fire leaving another person dead and two more wounded.

Meanwhile, two U.S. Marines, assigned to the II MEF, died from wounds sustained in an IED attack yesterday near the former rebel-stronghold of Fallujah, the U.S. military announced Friday.

In another purported sectarian attack, armed men dressed in Iraqi police uniforms stormed the Baghdad residence of Sunni cleric Adel Khalil Dawoud late Thursday night and abducted him. Dawoud, iman of the Nuaimi mosque, had only recently returned to the Iraqi capital from Jordan after have fled there to escape the raging sectarian violence that has befallen the war-torn nation.

Friday's disclosing of the election results was all but a formality. However, now that the election results are officially certified, the newly elected 275-seat Iraqi assembly must meet within the course of 15 days in order to begin hashing out plans for a new government.

As expected, the conservative Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), garnered the most seats (128) on the Iraqi parliament. Sunni Arab groups received 58 spots while Kurdish parties finished a close third by grabbing 53 seats.

Secular groups had a disappointing showing in December's election, although, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi National List (INL) will have 25 representatives when parliament convenes.

In other violence Friday, two Iraqi policemen and an Iraqi soldier were slain in three separate shootings in the restive city of Baqouba, located about 40 miles north of the capital.