Three Iraqi election officials shot dead, blasts injure 15 (Roundup)

Aug 18, 2008, 15:25 GMT

Baghdad - Gunmen killed three members of Iraq's electoral committee on Monday while 15 people were injured in two separate bombs blasts in western Baghdad, security forces and witness said.

The three officials were senior members of the committee that is preparing for provincial government elections in Iraq.

The bus carrying them came under fire along a country road in Basra province, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, the sources said.

Meanwhile, a blast in western Baghdad's Ordon Square on Monday injured nine people, including three policemen, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency quoted a source.

The explosion also damaged several vehicles, the source told VOI.

Hours earlier, three policemen and three civilians were injured in a blast in nearby Mansour, another source told the agency. The explosive had been set off remotely and targeted a police patrol, according to the source, who did not want to be named.

The blasts came less than a day after a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad that targeted fighters aligned with Iraqi forces fighting al-Qaeda killed 12 in the north-west of the capital.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday condemned the attack in Adhamiya district in which a female bomber blew herself up at an awakening council checkpoint near the district's Abu Hanifa mosque.

The deputy chief of Adhamiya's Awakening Councils Farouq al-Obaidi was among those killed. Thirty-two people were injured in the attack.

Awakening Councils consist of tribal Sunni fighters who turned against the al-Qaeda terrorist network in a number of provinces in Iraq alongside US forces.

Around 80,000 Arab Sunnis, mostly former armed insurgents who had fought against US forces after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime have joined the Awakening Councils programme since the end of 2006.

The Awakening movement, which began in Anbar province, has become a major armed force. Its senior members are a constant target of assassination attacks.

Earlier this month, a senior Awakening Council leader, Sheik Ibrahim Karbouli, was killed when his convoy came under attack in Yousifiya, south of Baghdad.

Also in August, police discovered the bodies of three council members days after they were abducted in northern Iraq.

Iraq's provincial elections will determine the political power-sharing in Iraq.

In early August, Iraqi members of parliament failed to agree on the adoption of a election law over disagreements on how elections in the northern multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk are to be held.

The disagreement is expected to delay Iraq's provincial government elections scheduled for October.

Kirkuk is inhabited by Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs.