IRAQ: Iraqi insurgents killed at least 22 people in two simultaneous explosions in central Baghdad yesterday, challenging a security clampdown in the capital ahead of the release of the results of last month's election.
International monitors have effectively rejected allegations by minority Sunni Arabs of massive vote-rigging by concluding that the election was broadly fair; in a nod to Sunni sentiment, however, they called for all communities to join in government.
Fearing a surge in attacks by once-dominant Sunni Arabs angered by results which will leave Shia Islamists with close to a majority in parliament, the Shia/Kurdish-led interim government sealed off a number of cities and sent extra troops and police on to Baghdad's streets.
However, just hours after police had set up additional checkpoints throughout the capital, a police patrol was hit when a car parked near a coffee shop in central Baghdad exploded.
"At the same time, a suicide-bomber went inside the coffee shop and blew himself up," a policeman said, adding that 22 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in the two blasts. Body parts lay scattered in the street and a number of other cars caught fire.
US commanders had warned of a rise in violence in the run-up to the publication of the final results of the election, which the head of the electoral commission confirmed would come today.
"We expect Zarqawi and foreign fighters to strike again after the election results," Maj Gen Rick Lynch told reporters, referring to al-Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The report by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) was welcomed by Hussein al-Hendawi, who said: "It praises the whole election process. We are really relieved." A four-strong team from the independent group arrived in Baghdad two weeks ago to review the process of the December 15th vote in what electoral officials said was a gesture to ease tension.
Some Sunni leaders were outraged that the IMIE failed to produce a major change in the results, which will leave Sunni Arab parties with about one-fifth of the seats - a share similar to that of the Kurds.
"The Americans did not want anything to interfere with their project in Iraq . . . They did not want any bad news on the election," said Sunni politician Hussein al-Falluji. However, many Sunni political leaders are also negotiating with Shia and Kurdish leaders on the formation of a grand coalition government.
Italy is to withdraw 1,000 of its 2,600 troops in Iraq by June and aims to finish its mission there by the end of this year, defence minister Antonio Martino said yesterday.
He told a parliamentary committee that Italy would "gradually end" its military presence and phase in a new type of presence which would be "substantially civilian in nature". Italy has the fourth-largest foreign contingent in Iraq.