Militants promise to drown Iraq in blood

Iraq crisis

Yesterday, leaflets appeared in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in which the leaders of the resistance movement promise to “flood the streets” of Iraqi cities with blood on the day of the upcoming parliamentary elections on January 30. However, the militants began to prepare for this in advance. Just yesterday, six American troops, 11 police officers and several officials of the new regime were killed in Iraq. Observers fear that the elections will not take place. After all, even Iraqis living abroad are in no hurry to register at the polling stations organized for them.

Militant leaflets have been appearing regularly in Iraq lately. As a rule, they contain a standard set of slogans - from calls to boycott the elections of the “puppet power of the crusaders” to threats against violators of this requirement and promises of reprisals against collaborators. However, yesterday in Baghdad's Rashad district, militants distributed their leaflets in broad daylight, ignoring the police. Several people walked the streets and briskly handed out propaganda leaflets to passers-by. There were practically no people who refused to take the paper. Few people dare to contradict the militants in Iraq. However, in Baghdad the police tried to detain the distributors of the leaflets. However, an attempt to arrest the militant escalated into a fierce shootout, in which dozens of people participated on both sides. As a result, the police lost 11 people, and they managed to shoot only one militant. As the militants promise, this is just the beginning of the nightmare. “The coming days will be the worst for those who are trying to impose the rules of the crusaders on the land of Islam,” the leaflet says. Its authors warn Iraqis to come closer than 500 meters to polling stations next Sunday. “Specially trained snipers are ready to kill traitors who want to go vote,” the leaflet threatens. “We have prepared car bombs, rockets, mortars and planted explosive devices on the roads for each polling station.”

The Iraqi authorities, in turn, declare their determination to secure the upcoming vote. In particular, Iraq's external borders will be closed from January 29 to 31. Baghdad International Airport will also cease operations. All movement at night will be prohibited, and vehicle traffic in cities, with the exception of police and coalition troop transport, will be closed on election day. In addition, on Monday, authorities announced the arrest of one of the closest associates of Iraq's number one terrorist, Abu Musab Zarqawi. We are talking about Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, nicknamed Abu Omar al-Kurdi. In Zarqawi's group, he had no equal in organizing terrorist attacks using car bombs. According to investigators, he is behind 75% of such terrorist attacks. Abu Omar al-Kurdi himself is already testifying and has taken responsibility for such high-profile actions as the bombing of the UN office in Baghdad in August 2003, which killed more than 20 people, including the special representative of the UN Secretary General Sergio Vieira de Mello.

But the militants argue that “the authorities and the occupation forces will not be able to protect anyone; they are not able to guarantee the safety of even their own soldiers at their bases.” Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, in their words, “will not protect ordinary citizens, the main thing for him is to fill his pockets and satisfy his Jewish and American masters.”

It is not only such leaflets that undermine trust in the new authorities. Yesterday, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch released a report from which it follows that the Iraqi intelligence services and police are acting in the same illegal ways as their predecessors during the regime of Saddam Hussein. Of the 90 Iraqis interviewed who visited the security services, 72 admitted that police officers brutally tortured them in an effort to extract testimony. Moreover, we are talking about services that the United States was actively involved in preparing. "Their record is not without blemishes when it comes to human rights," admitted yesterday a US embassy official in Baghdad, who wished to remain anonymous. "There is a culture in the security service where the end justifies the means." At the same time, he promised that Washington would not allow the situation that existed under Saddam to develop.

For ordinary Iraqis, this comes as little consolation. Observers fear that the elections will be disrupted. After all, even those Iraqis who live outside their homeland are not going to vote. According to the International Organization for Migration, of the 1.2 million Iraqi emigrants, only 25% registered at polling stations specially created for them in 14 countries around the world.

ALEXANDER Kommersant-REUTOV

If you cast your vote, you will lose your life