Official Iraqi Election violence report thread

[Walt Starr]

I figured why wait, the polls opened and MSNBC had gunfire almost immediatley, so let's report all violence we actually find out about here. I expect every station to cut away as soon as violence erupts, but let's get the truth out in the open here.

[Name removed]

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[Walt Starr]

2. Not "hoping"

Simply expecting violence.

Hopefully, everybody will stay home and the only deaths will be the suiciders.

[Name removed]

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[Walt Starr]

6. That's fantasy, not hope

:shrug:

Sorry, but I don't live in fantasyland.

[lala_rawraw]

20. I read somewhere...

forgive me.. maybe on here, but can't remember...that they were "helped" to vote by soldiers with guns. so damn it, we will bring them democracy even if we have to kill them all to do it. woo hoo...and no, i can't watch this on TV while Blitzer prances at the success and Mathews gets his expert liars on... I wait for morning, and will listen to AirAm...and hope that all will be okay because everyone ran away or hid.

[Walt Starr]

21. They were forced to register to get food

Sorta like forced to praise Jesus for Tsunami relief.

:shrug:

[Name removed]

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[Darranar]

67. What difference does the turnout make?

If every Iraqi voted, it still wouldn't be a legitimate election, because it is being held under occupation (or, if you prefer, "sovereign government" repression) and therefore it is being held under coercion.

And even if the election was legitimate, the government resulting would be forced to bend knee to US power anyway, because of US domination of Iraq's economy and the continued US military presence.

This is not "democracy." This is imperial rule.

[Bluebear]

73. What is a "suicider"?

[Renew Deal]

74. Bush's term for suicide bombers.

[Bluebear]

75. Indeed. Just funny to see it here!

[diamond14]

3. PHOTO: destruction of Baghdad high school POLLING PLACE yesterday

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Solly Mack]

9. What trumad said

and then some...

[two gun sid]

18. Hi, Solly Mack.

Are you expecting as much shit as I am? I do not think this farce of an election is going to go well.

[Solly Mack]

19. Hiya! I got up early just to watch events unfold

because I do expect some bad juju to go down.

My tummy is in knots already. :(

[bvar22]

12. Good work, Trumad.

I'm in no mood to suffer the fools tonight.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Bouncy Ball]

24. Hey sweetbutterfly

how do you know WHO blew that polling place up? Are ALL Iraqis insurgents to you, or what?

None of this would be happening if we hadn't attacked Iraq in the first fucking place. No WMDs.

[Name removed]

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[katinmn]

10. We should watch for reports from Dahr Jamail

http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=4638
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/

[Walt Starr]

11. The Conserrvative News Network may actually report violence

They seem pretty bloodthirsty right now.

[katinmn]

41. Blast hits Basra voting station - police

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30300440.htm

[ultraist]

13. Election violence began Saturday

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7EE5B088-926A-441B-BA85-1386F9CD3483.htm

Yesterday: More than a dozen polling stations have been attacked

US embassy rocketed before Iraq vote
Saturday 29 January 2005, 22:56 Makka Time, 19:56 GMT

Two people have been killed and four others injured when a rocket hit the US embassy in Baghdad on the eve of Iraq's elections.

One round fell into the embassy's compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad on Saturday, according to a US embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan confirmed the embassy had been hit in an attack, but could give no details about casualties. The second official, speaking anonymously, confirmed that two had been killed and four injured.

Earlier in the day, 17 people were killed in a spate of attacks across Iraq. As security forces barricaded streets, sealed Iraq's borders and closed Baghdad airport, more than a dozen polling stations were attacked and bloodshed continued to stain the electoral countdown.

Iraq Under Occupation:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8245212D-39CC-4E6E-80FF-2E1F29F72BC5.htm

[Solly Mack]

14. a "fact sheet" on Iraq Elections

http://www.wpbfnews.com/news/4132499/detail.html

The thread is a good call! I got up at 5:00 AM (CET) just to tune in for what's going on in Iraq.

[ultraist]

58. Killings hit run to Iraq vote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4217613.stm
Killings hit run-up to Iraq vote
Iraq's exercise in democracy is being secured by force of arms

Insurgents have attacked US troops, polling stations and Iraqi forces as security was tightened ahead of Sunday's landmark national election.

Five US soldiers were killed in three attacks on Friday, and at least 10 Iraqis died in Baghdad and Ramadi.

An extended curfew has begun to be followed by border closures and movement restrictions on Saturday, with US troops deployed to protect polls. Expatriate Iraqis were allowed to start early voting in 14 countries on Friday.

In other developments: Casualty figures obtained by the BBC suggest coalition and Iraqi forces may be responsible for up to 60% of conflict-related civilian deaths in Iraq

[diamond14]

15. early morning MESSAGE for the TET to begin.....(PHOTO)

at 7 AM, a man-in-black walks down the middle of a major street in Baghdad, to send the message: the TET has begun...and OUR troops didn't even notice.....

[Walt Starr]

16. Violence expected to be LOW!!!!

xpecially when they're lining up to vote like in this Baghdad polling place:

[two gun sid]

22. That same polling place

is on every station I've seen. Even the BBC feed showed it. I wonder if it is even live.

[diamond14]

17. PHOTO: check out this ALL-GLASS Detroit-area polling place

more madness from the bush* minions...they don't even have BRAINS....

[Disturbed]

23. The Glorious Leader will announce..

that even though a few people died and some were injured that the Iraqi elections were a wonderful success and that Freedom has won a Great Victory.

[Bouncy Ball]

26. Yep and FOUR WHOLE IRAQIS voted in Iraq!!!

:eyes:

[maxudargo]

27. Hey buddy

That's four more Iraqis than ever voted before! Freedom is on the march!

These things take time. It's hard work. But next election it will be five Iraqis. And then the next election it will be 8. Freedom is on the march!

[Karenina]

76. Shouldn't take too long to count, eh?

Film at 11.

[Solly Mack]

25. Suicide car bombing being reported near or at polling station

in west baghdad.

BBC reporting...still looking for link..said Reuters is reporting

link

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-01-30T053401Z_01_CUT019438_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-BLAST.xml

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber has blown up his vehicle at an Iraqi security checkpoint protecting a polling station in west Baghdad, killing a policeman shortly after voting began, police sources say.

[two gun sid]

28. Reuters reporting 1 policeman killed...

2 military & 2 civilians wounded.

[Solly Mack]

29. Not even a full hour into voting

long long day ahead for Iraqis :(

[two gun sid]

30. MSNBC reporting explosions and gunfire

in West Baghdad. Their poor reporter looks scared to death.

[Solly Mack]

31. west baghdad seems to be the hot spot this AM

or is this the same explosion...just escalating?

[Solly Mack]

32. AP reporting 2 attacks ...so far (West & Central Baghdad)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_THE_VOTE?SITE=AKFAI&SECTION=HOME

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century, as insurgents made good on threats of violence with a car bomb and mortar attacks in at least two cities. Casting his vote, President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq's first step "toward joining the free world."

Police reported an explosion near a polling station in western Baghdad an hour after polls opened, but there was no immediate word on casualties. Mortar fire and explosions were also heard in central Baghdad and in the religiously mixed city of Baqouba 30 miles northeast of the capital."
-snip-

[two gun sid]

33. Reporter said that the explosions were different

than the first car bomb at the checkpoint. They have not went back to her since. She looked like she was gonna start crying.

[Solly Mack]

34. Okies. Mosul has explosions....BBC reporting at this moment

no link on Mosul explosions....reporter reporting the "sounds of explosions"

also said in Sunni areas no sign of voters compared to Shiite areas, where they are some voters.

[Solly Mack]

36. updated link to include Basra explosions

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_THE_VOTE?SITE=AKFAI&SECTION=HOME

updated story adds the cities of Basra, Kirkuk , and near BIAP

[two gun sid]

37. No signs of voting in the Sunni strongholds.

They must be sleeping in today.


"I firmly planted the flag of Liberty" --- George W. Bush

[Solly Mack]

39. Okies...Mosul confirmed

just follow other link to Basra....it's been updated to include Mosul

[maxudargo]

43. Why do you keep calling us Okies?

[Solly Mack]

45. way too early for humor

for me anyway

:)

[maxudargo]

46. ?

[Solly Mack]

50. No one is being called an OKie from Oklahoma

OK-Okey-Dokey-Okies

Mystery solved? :)

[maxudargo]

51. oh.

Ahem. I'll just go sit over here and stay out of your way now...

[Solly Mack]

54. Stay, please. Coffee? Donut?

:donut: <~~for you :)

[two gun sid]

44. BBC World Service not reporting Basra and Mosul, yet.

I thought Basra would be relatively quiet.

[katinmn]

47. Suicide bomb near Baghdad polling station kills 1

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAR019380.htm

[two gun sid]

49. More loud blasts in Baghdad.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAR019823.htm

[Solly Mack]

48. CNN International announcing Basra now

news miner had it a bit back...I like news miner

[Solly Mack]

52. Just showed Allawi going to vote

ho hum....

[two gun sid]

53. I thought he and Negroponte took the last flight out of Baghdad

yesterday? I had heard he was in Washington DC.

[Solly Mack]

55. Just showed him entering to vote...I didn't catch where he was voting

He was waving and then disappeared into a building.

I was getting coffee ..sorry

[ultraist]

35. Bomb attacks/mortar fire

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF07A16D-F5EE-4D72-8B45-DD5D085C1F83.htm
Several bomb attacks as polls open
Sunday 30 January 2005, 8:45 Makka Time, 5:45 GMT
Fighters have launched a campaign to disrupt the polls

Several sections of the Iraqi capital Baghdad have been rocked by explosions as voters began trickling in to polling stations. Several loud explosions rocked central Baghdad shortly after the start of voting on Sunday. The blasts came from different districts in the centre of the capital and police said an explosion had jolted the Mansur district, an upper class area of western Baghdad.

Iraqi police reported a car bomb attack on a makeshift polling station at the Zahra school in Mansur. Police sources said one Iraqi security member was killed and two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were wounded. US military authorities had warned before the election that attacks and bombers were likely on election day.

Mortars fired

Across town in the Shia slum of Sadr City, 10 women and 18 men lined up outside pollings stations as similar scenes played out across Iraq. In the Shia shrine city of Najaf, five men were seen queueing outside one polling centre. A few mortars exploded near the US military base in the northern city of Kirkuk shortly before the voting centres opened. The vote is designed to choose a 275-member national assembly which will write a new constitution and prepare elections for a permanent government in December.

[whirlygigspin]

38. BBC World Radio live

unconfirmed report of an explosion near polling station in Basra.

[geomon666]

40. Where is NPR? Are they reporting anything?

Are you alive over there?!

[katinmn]

42. Blast hits Basra polling station - police

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30300440.htm

[ultraist]

56. Violence depresses voter turnout

snips
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=454755
At one voting center in the heavily Shiite Muslim city of Nasiriyah in the south, about 40 people lined up waiting to vote. But at a school-turned-polling station in Baghdad's middle-class Karrada neighborhood, a mixed Shiite-Sunni area, only three voters appeared in the first 45 minutes.

Under the eye of sharpshooters looking down from nearby rooftops, the three were searched first at an outer perimeter about 40 yards from the school, then they had to remove their jackets and take batteries from their cell phones before walking through coils of barbed wire.

Overhead, helicopters clattered and a jet fighter roared by. Occasional bursts of machine gun fire echoed through Baghdad's deserted streets.

Final results will not be known for seven to 10 days, but a preliminary tally was expected late Sunday. In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly.

####

In a region of 600,000, only 150 people have voted. Reported by MSNBC

[two gun sid]

57. Did anyone see the indelible ink

they are marking voters fingers with? How many headless bodies with purple fingers are they gonna find over the next week? Did they really think they were gonna have problems with people voting multiple times?

[vetwife]

60. I want that election to

go as secure as possible. That is our our troops over there and I really don't want any more bloodshed. Somebody's son or daughter or Father or Mother got a phone call today and somebody is ripped apart in grief tonight.

[two gun sid]

63. Yes ma'am, I hate to see violence too.

My cousin is over there in Baghdad. I wish the Bush administration was more reality based and realized this election at this time was a bad idea. I get no enjoyment out of this.

[Solly Mack]

59. BBC update

Suicide bomber was "foreign militant", strapped with explosives

Results will take several days

Monitors at polling places to prevent cheating (Iraqi monitors)

along with the ink already mentioned

If I read right, 4 more dead in a house in Baghdad when explosion hits house...in addition to the suicide bomber. (CNNI reporting)

[two gun sid]

61. I don't know what it means but,

reports out of Kuwait of gunfire. Seems kinda weird to me. Smells like something related to Iraq. I hope not.

[Solly Mack]

62. around the UmmQasr region? (Iraqi/Kuwait "border" more or less)

Just curious...an American TIF is nearby...Camp Bucca

[two gun sid]

64. I don't know.

All I heard was Kuwait Security Service reported fighting no details at this time.

[whirlygigspin]

65. explosion in Sadr City kills 3

BBCWORLD reports

[magellan]

66. May be a reference to police gunfight with militants in Kuwait City?

Kuwait police raid suspected militant hideout

KUWAIT, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Kuwaiti security forces raided a suspected militant hideout in the capital on Sunday, a day after officials and the United States issued warnings of more al Qaeda-linked violence in the Gulf state.

Witnesses and security sources said police commandos had cordoned off a block in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district and were firing at two buildings in the area.

"They (police) were shooting at these buildings with M16s and rocket-propelled grenades," one witness told Reuters. "The shooting is coming from various locations."

Several police cars cut off access to the block, and a helicopter hovered overhead. Ambulances were seen racing into the area, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

[katinmn]

68. A few more details on Bagdad suicide bomber

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAR025393.htm
Several killed in Baghdad suicide, mortar attacks
30 Jan 2005 07:13:39 GMT

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a queue of voters outside a west Baghdad polling station on Sunday, causing several casualties, and a blast at another voting centre in Sadr City killed at least four people, officials said.

Police said mortar attacks on several polling stations around Baghdad had killed and wounded several people but did not have precise casualty figures.

[mikelewis]

69. I'm TIVOing (verb?) MSNBC and CNN - Need any reviews just reply

I can't upload the video but I can at least help repeat what they said if you missed it.

I pray this violence won't continue. I can't stand it.

[katinmn]

70. Iraqis vote amid mounting attacks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4219569.stm
Iraqis vote amid mounting attacks

Queues outside polling stations have been targeted by bombers
Iraqis are voting in their first multi-party elections for half a century amid several reports of blasts and attacks at polling stations. At least five people are known to have died in two attacks in Baghdad.

More than 100 parties and coalitions are competing for 275 seats in a transitional national assembly which will draw up a new constitution.

But turnout is patchy so far, with long queues in Basra but little voting in cities in the Sunni heartland.

-snip-
In Baghdad's Sadr City, at least four people died when a mortar struck a polling station. At least seven people were wounded.

-a little more-

[diamond14]

71. sad...that's why Basra was attacked.... those LONG QUEUES....

bet there's NO LINES now.....

[katinmn]

72. no

:cry:

I hate bush

[Mr.Green93]

77. This thread

will be all over the internet.

[Bouncy Ball]

81. It will, huh?

Where? Got some links?

:eyes:

Democrats happen to live in the world of reality. The reality was this election was screwed from the beginning. It pisses us off. THe Iraqis AND our troops have had to deal with ENOUGH. But then they get to deal with this FUBAR sham of an "election," too.

[Walt Starr]

82. Talking heads reporting violence lower than expected

which is GREAT if true.

Unfortunately, any "election" where voters must dodge bombs and gunfire in order to vote cannot be considered "legitimate".