In news from Iraq, the entire 13-member electoral commission in the province of Anbar has
resigned after being threatened by insurgents. The head of the commission told a newspaper that insurgent attacks made it "impossible to hold elections" in the Sunni province, which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
Last month, Iraq's largest Sunni political party also
decided to drop out of the election process. But on Sunday, the party
announced that it will abandon its call for a boycott if the United States gives a timetable for withdrawing multinational forces.
A U.S. diplomat told Reuters that no such schedule would be given. As for the Sunnis, they are predicted to loose lose their political dominance to the Shiites.
Meanwhile, more coalition members are also planning to withdraw troops from Iraq. Ukraine's outgoing president has promised to withdraw the country's 1,600 troops from Iraq in the first half of 2005. The announcement comes in the wake of an accidental blast that killed seven Ukrainian soldiers in Iraq.
MSNBC is reporting that "scores of police and regional government officials have been assassinated in recent months, part of the insurgents' campaign to try to instill fear ahead of the Jan. 30 vote and to hunt down people who are perceived as collaborators with the U.S.-led coalition. Last week, gunmen shot dead the governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidari, and six of his bodyguards." All this as insurgents are increasing the size and power of their bombs.
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