|
Iraq attacks down on referendum day Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051017/pl_afp/iraqconstitutionvotehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051017/pl_afp/iraqconstitutionvote
Iraq attacks down on referendum day: US
Mon Oct 17, 2:48 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said the number of insurgent attacks during Iraq's constitutional referendum was sharply lower than during the January elections.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, quoting Iraqi election officials, reported 35 attacks on polling stations and staff during Saturday's vote on a new charter for the post- Saddam Hussein era.
This compared, he said, with 91 such incidents during the January 30 elections for an interim national assembly that were hailed here as a milestone for the war-battered country's political development.
McCormack gave no explanation for the drop, but President George W. Bush earlier attributed it to improved performance by the Iraqi security forces the Americans are scrambling to train.
"The violence in this election was down from the previous election," Bush told White House reporters as he met with Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov.
"And one of the reasons why is because the Iraqi forces took the fight to the enemy and provided security, which is really heartening to coalition forces and friends and allies," he said.
But US officials stopped short of suggesting the insurgency, which has confronted US-led troops that ousted Saddam 30 months ago, was abating.
McCormack's deputy Adam Ereli asserted last Thursday that the violence in the runup to the referendum was lower than around the constitutional vote, but a Pentagon report issued the same day appeared to contradict him.
The report showed that as of September 16, the number of attacks by Iraqi insurgents was averaging nearly 600 a week, compared with just over 500 around the country's landmark parliamentary elections in January.
US military officials said they have seen no falloff in insurgent actvity in the last month before the vote on the charter hammered out mostly by leaders of the majority Shiite and the Kurdish communities.
McCormack took pains to specify that his figures referred only to attacks on the two balloting days. Asked whether the insurgency was losing steam overall, he referred the reporter to the Pentagon.
But the State Department spokesman insisted the military effort to contain the insurgency was only one element of a three-pronged strategy that also included political and economic development.
"I think we are seeing progress on all of these fronts," he said. "And that ultimately is the way that we will help the Iraqi people provide a foundation for themselves on which they can build a stable, democratic and prosperous state."
|
|
