12 Days to Iraqi Elections

Boston Globe:

Insurgents who have vowed to disrupt Iraq's parliamentary elections unleashed attacks yesterday across Iraq, from the kidnapping of a Catholic archbishop and a car bombing at a police station in the north to mortar attacks on polling stations in Basra in the south. At least 18 people were killed.

In Buhruz in central Iraq, gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles attacked a minibus carrying Iraqi soldiers, killing at least seven soldiers and a civilian.

In the northern town of Baiji, explosives packed in a car detonated at the gate of the police station, killing seven police officers, witnesses said. Scenes of anguish, across a street strewn with burned wreckage and human remains, were met with fear that violence would continue before the Jan. 30 vote.

"Damn the elections. They are just a disaster hanging over our head," said the mother of one of the slain Baiji police officers, 20-year-old Nayif Ratif. "What was the fault of my son? He was a very simple and good man. He died because of these elections."