IRAQ HOLDS LANDMARK ELECTION. 38 KILLED IN BOMB ATTACKS

Iraq holds landmark vote, attacks kill 38

(AP, Reuters)
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/index00.asp

7 March 2010, 7:00 PM

BAGHDAD - Bomb blasts and rocket and mortar fire killed 38 people as Iraqis voted on Sunday in an election they hoped would distance their nascent democracy from years of sectarian slaughter as U.S. troops pack up to leave.

The explosions rumbled across Baghdad and other cities after Sunni Islamist insurgents vowed to wreck voting for Iraq’s second full-term parliament since the 2003 U.S. invasion, a vote watched closely by global oil companies planning to invest billions to develop the country’s dilapidated oilfields.

Turnout among the 19 million eligible voters was not clear.
It could take three days to get results in an election that will prove vital to U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to halve U.S. troop levels by August and withdraw completely by end-2011.

“I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote today,” Obama said in a statement. “Their participation demonstrates that the Iraqi people have chosen to shape their future through the political process.”

Authorities said dozens of mortar and rocket attacks rattled Baghdad during the early hours of polling before ebbing later in the day. In the deadliest incident, 25 people were killed when an explosion blew up a three-storey Baghdad apartment block.

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