Meanwhile, Baathist forces have continued deadly attacks against U.S. forces and Iraqi troops, representatives of the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and election officials in a desperate attempt to halt elections scheduled for January 30. On January 5, for example, a suicide car bombing outside a police academy south of Baghdad during a graduation ceremony reportedly killed as many as 20 people, most of them policemen. Hours earlier, another car bomb killed two Iraqis in the country’s capital, according to news agencies. The day before, gunmen assassinated the governor of Baghdad province and detonated a fuel truck near an Iraqi Interior Ministry office in Baghdad, killing another 10 people.

Despite these killings, and a January 4 statement by the country’s most senior Sunni Arab official, Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawar, that holding the vote as planned would be a “tough call,” the Allawi administration held firm on going ahead with the elections on January 30. The U.S.-backed premier warned those calling for a postponement of the poll that any delay would “worsen the security situation,” according to Agence France-Presse.

An earlier audiotape message by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden praised Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and said anyone who participates in the Iraqi elections is an “infidel” and fair game for attack. Al-Zarqawi’s group has collaborated with Baathist forces and taken responsibility for numerous bombings of civilian and military targets in Iraq, as well as kidnappings and beheadings of hostages. According to the Christian Science Monitor, bin Laden’s statement urged Muslims to attack anyone collaborating with the interim administration. “All polling stations and those in them will be targets for our brave soldiers,” it said. The embrace of al-Zarqawi by bin Laden is a further indication of the growing isolation of Baathists and their allies in Iraq, especially among Shiites, who comprise 60 percent of the population, and Kurds.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, said two brigade-sized units would be deployed to Mosul to reinforce 8,000 troops already there in a new offensive against Baathist forces. Brigades are made up of 2,000-4,000 soldiers. On December 30, U.S. troops turned back an attempt by Baathists to overrun a U.S. combat outpost in Mosul, reported al-Jazeera. U.S. warplanes strafed and bombed the attackers, killing 25, according to the U.S. military.

Iraqi government officials have announced the capture of Abu Mawan, an alleged top leader of the Mosul-based Abu Talha, a group reportedly associated with al-Zarqawi.

U.S. and Iraqi troops also launched a new offensive in the Triangle of Death south of the capital. Nearly 300 suspected Baathists were captured, including Hatem al-Zawbal, according to press reports. Al-Jazeera said that al-Zawbal is believed to be the leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, another group that has taken responsibility for kidnapping dozens of foreigners. The group’s name refers to Iraq’s fight against British colonial rule.

A third leader of the Baathist-backed armed groups was captured in fighting in Samarra, according to the International Herald Tribune. The Tribune said the man captured, Fadil Husain Ahmed al-Kurdi, is an Iraqi Kurd and was responsible for communications between al-Qaeda and Tahwid and Jihad, Zarqawi’s group, and for movement of their forces in and out of Iraq.

Under these conditions, while support among Shiites and Kurds for the upcoming elections has remained solid, the leader of Iraq’s largest Sunni-led party announced the group’s withdrawal from the upcoming vote, according to a December 27 report by al-Jazeera. Mohsen Abdul Hamid said the Iraqi Islamic Party was not calling for a boycott of the elections. Several leaders of the party were arrested by Iraqi police last November and were accused of supporting the Baathist attacks on the interim regime.  
 
 
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