Updated at 7:25 p.m. EST, Feb. 4, 2009
At least nine Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 31 were wounded in today’s incidents, which included the discovery of a mass grave. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, reports of election fraud continue to vex Anbar province and perhaps down in Basra.
Prominent Sunni lawmaker, Saleh al-Mutlaq, is in Anbar province to diffuse a potentially dangerious situation involving accusations of election fraud. Awakening Council candidates felt they would win the election thanks to their work in eliminating al-Qaeda from the province. Early election predictions, however, point to a win by the Iraqi Islamic Party, which has run the province since the heavily boycotted 2005 elections. Turnout this time was only 40 percent. Fueling the tension, Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha claims to have documented evidence proving fraud.
A leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council admitted that Prime Minister’s Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party likely won the elections in Basra, but will wait until official results before considering what to do about the 10% of voters who claimed they could not vote because their names were mysteriously left off the voter rolls. The SIIC has been linked to Iran, but has also enjoyed close relations with Prime Minister Maliki.
A mass grave containing eight corpses was found in Khalis. Graves are frequently found in Diyala province.
In Baghdad, a sticky bomb attached to an Awakening Council leader’s car killed his son and wounded four others, including the leader, in Mansour. Two people were wounded during a bombing in Karrada. In Mashtal, four people were wounded during another roadside bombing.
In Mosul, two people were wounded during a roadside bombing. A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. patrol wounded two Iraqi civilians. A separate hand grenade attack, also on a U.S. patrol, wounded another Iraqi; the U.S. soldiers fired upon the assailant.
Nine policemen were wounded in Muqdadiya when a bomb planted in front of their police station exploded.
Six Awakening Council members were wounded during a bomb blast in Wehda.
A civilian was wounded during a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk.
Six suspects were detained in Basra.
A cache of Iranian-made weapons was confiscated in Tikrit.
Another weapons cache was found in Fallujah.
In Sulaimaniya, police seized a significant amount of explosives from two separate locations.
Four wanted suspects were detained south of Kirkuk.
Also, the International Federation of Journalists reported that at least 109 journalists were killed last year in Iraq.
Compiled by Margaret Griffis
