BAGHDAD: Iraq ramped up security yesterday on the eve of its first election since US troops left, as attacks, including a bombing at a Baghdad cafe, killed 37 people in a spike in unrest before polling day.
The deadly violence just before today’s provincial election raises further questions about the credibility of the polls, with 14 candidates killed and a third of Iraq’s provinces — all of them mainly Sunni Arab or Kurdish — not even voting.
The election is seen as a key test of Iraq’s stability and security, and will provide a gauge of the popularity of the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki ahead of a general election next year.
But attacks on Thursday and yesterday that left 37 dead increased concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to assure security for the polls.
On Thursday evening, a bomb in the west Baghdad suburb of Amriyah killed 27 people and wounded more than 50, officials said. Further attacks in the capital and northern Iraq yesterday killed another 10 people and wounded dozens more.
The Baghdad blast on Thursday hit a billiards cafe frequented by young men inside a small shopping mall on the main road in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighbourhood.
Witnesses said it wreaked massive damage.
Security forces restricted access to the area, but the tightened searches did little to placate anger in Amriyah, where many residents accused authorities of negligence.
“If it was not them (soldiers) who did it, it was their fault,” said one resident who declined to be named.
“We are surrounded by walls and checkpoints, so if it’s not them who did it, they helped because they were lazy or they did not perform the checks well.”AFP
