Reuters reports bomb goes off in Western Baghdad polling place

[Oreo]

Just heard on msnbc...

Reuters reporting a suicide car bomb now

"shortly after voting began"

so much for getting through the first hour without problems!

Just confirmed by AP

3 explosions heard

1 police office killed
2 soldiers 2 civilians injured

[alittlelark]

1. My guess is it will be the first of many...

... Iraqis are PISSED. I would be too.

[NYC Liberal]

3. Hopefully not surprised though.

I hope for their own sake, they stay away from the polling places. I know I would.

[Jack_DeLeon]

9. you would be pissed?

So you would blow up a voting station and kill innocent people?

[solinvictus]

19. Voting station...

This is the key strategy of the (or for that matter any) insurgency, which is to make it appear fatal to cooperate with occupation authorities on any level. Killing large numbers of people who attempt to vote will likely influence turnout and bring the entire election process into question.

[Califooyah Operative]

2. Not a good start,

msnbc's coverage has showed pretty much only iraqi security forces voting, and that's not much, and explosions, and more boycotts, all coming out within the first hour. Pray for these people.

[Not_Giving_Up]

4. They just said that three different explosions were heard

Here we go....

[roguevalley]

5. they had time to bury many a bomb all around. this is very sad.

[SW FL Dem]

6. CNN also reporting explosions at polling places n/t

[Oreo]

7. MSNBC saying 7 or 8... now 9 explosions heard

[daleo]

8. Polling places in the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K. etc. were safe though

That's where the real voting happened. Especially the White House.

[diamond14]

10. it's really too bad that polling places are inside SCHOOLS !

Here's a Bagdad High School polling place getting destroyed yesterday....the schools will all be in shambles before the day is out....another collosal f**k-up by bushites...

[kuozzman]

11. Here's the article:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050130/325/fbdh2.html

(Entire article)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An explosion has been reported at a polling station in western Baghdad shortly after voting began in Iraq's elections, and there were believed to be casualties, police say.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, they said.

Insurgents have declared war on Sunday's election and vowed to launch attacks on polling centres.

[inslee08]

12. Bravery

No doubt, some of the bravest people in the world are voting in today's election. God/Allah bless them.

[Oreo]

17. not so sure....

is it brave or stupid? Will the vote really make a difference anyway? They're picking people to pick a president to draft a constitution. Almost 300 parties with thousands if people... pick one. Sorry... I don't think I'd be leaving my house if I lived there.

[Maple]

35. No, just

very naive people.

[dweller]

13. the freedom fire has started i guess...

eom.

sigh,
dp

[SCMcDonnell]

14. Voter

Quoting his favorite American movie: "This one time, at polling place..."

Shaun

[diamond14]

22. the Iraqi president conveniently VOTED INSIDE THE GREEN ZONE

and then encouraged all the OTHER Iraqis to get out there and be KILLED.....while he himself was too chicken to leave the HEAVILY FORTIFIED GREEN ZONE....bush* is cut from the same cloth....



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6874656/

-snips-

As the voting got under way, poll workers checked identifications. Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first to vote at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling the election his country’s first step “toward joining the free world.”

While workers watched, he marked two ballots and then dropped them into boxes. A poll worker handed him an Iraqi flag as he left.

“I’m very proud and happy this morning,” al-Yawher told reporters. “I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq.”

[theHandpuppet]

25. Sound like anyone we know?

Allawi has taken his Bushco lessons to heart!

[hangemhigh]

15. Here comes the fucking freedom. I could vomit. nt

[Straight Shooter]

32. You do the vomiting. I'm going to curl up in a fetal position and cry.

I feel so sorry for those Iraqis. What have they ever done to deserve this hell on earth they can't seem to escape, except through death at the hands of one madman or another?

:cry:

[kuozzman]

16. AP reporting on at least 2 blasts.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_elections_1

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying threats of violence and an initial round of attacks from insurgents determined to sabotage the balloting. As he cast his vote, President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq (news - web sites)'s first step "toward joining the free world."

Mortar fire and explosions were heard in central Baghdad about an hour and a half after polls opened. Police also reported an explosion near a polling station in western Baghdad, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security into schools and other buildings used as polling centers. A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said all the nearly 5,200 polling stations were opening on schedule.

Turnout was expected to be low in the early hours. Most attacks occur in the morning, and many Iraqis were likely to wait to see if rebels carry through with threats.

[heyphillip]

21. The so called Iraq election

Well the party begains

[diamond14]

27. it's CRIMINAL that bushites decided to use SCHOOLS as polling places

all the Iraqi schools will be WRECKED in the next few hours....more FREEDOM and LIBERTY from the bushites...if they only had a BRAIN...

[Clarkie1]

18. Brave people are risking their lives today to vote; I salute them

Just wish we'd voted that S.O.B. out of the white house responsible for these murders.

[Oreo]

20. MSNBC now saying tanks, mortar and gunfire

Let freedom reign

[rainbow4321]

31. Jets, tanks, razor wire ready Iraq for democracy's debut

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/29/a1.iraqvote.0129.html

MOSUL, Iraq - The U.S. military moved Iraqi security forces and voting materials to polling sites throughout Iraq, increasing preparations for Sunday's parliamentary elections in the face of insurgent violence that left five American soldiers and 10 Iraqis dead on Friday.

The round-the-clock activity amounted to a nationwide logistical offensive, with U.S. troops enforcing ``no roll'' bans on vehicular traffic, helping to seal national and provincial borders, and providing concrete barriers, coiled razor wire and guidance on security at polling sites.

The massive effort, dubbed Operation Founding Fathers, has not resolved widespread uncertainty about the elections, and in some ways has intensified it. In Baghdad, two roadside bombs killed four American soldiers, and small-arms fire killed another. The capital grew deserted under a blanket of security. U.S. tanks appeared in the streets, and Apache attack helicopters and combat jets flew overhead in a pre-election show of force.

In the northern city of Mosul, insurgents spread graffiti - some of it on walls at polling sites - threatening to behead voters, and they sprayed gunfire at Iraqi security forces protecting polling stations. At one site, Arab and Kurdish security forces who were supposed to be working together were not talking.

[vickie]

23. Have any of the cable news blatherers commented on this?

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[quaoar]

26. Who would vote under these conditions?

From AP:

At one voting center in the heavily Shiite Muslim city of Nasiriyah in the south, about 40 people lined up waiting to vote.

But at a school-turned-polling station in Baghdad’s middle-class Karrada neighborhood, a mixed Shiite-Sunni area, only three voters appeared in the first 45 minutes.

Under the eye of sharpshooters looking down from nearby rooftops, the three were searched first at an outer perimeter about 40 yards from the school, then they had to remove their jackets and take batteries from their cell phones before walking through coils of barbed wire.
Overhead, helicopters clattered and a jet fighter roared by. Occasional bursts of machine gun fire echoed through Baghdad’s deserted streets.

[barb162]

28. really delightful voting day (sarcasm)

[theHandpuppet]

36. Which brings up the point...

Any Iraqis who DO vote and then get caught up in some kind of attack on their polling place would most likely get shot themselves trying to get the hell out of the area. The way they have these places set up it would be hard to make a safe exit, especially when any Iraqis in the area of an attack are likely to become targets of our own troops and Iraqi police!

[Oreo]

29. MSNBC - "Without knowing the casualty count..seems like a pretty good day"

unreal...

saying 50% would be great turnout.

[Tess49]

30. Yeah, I heard that. What a bozo.

[Rainscents]

33. All the network news are going to change their tunes...

They are probably getting words from their boss NOT to report the real news about Iraq election.

[Rainscents]

34. We will need to turn to BBC news to get the real scoop.

[SoCalDem]

37. AlJazeera's home page has some recent info we won't get here

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

[annabanana]

38. kick for the am.............n/t

[McKenzie]

39. Wired - at least 20 Iraqis killed at polls

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=982778&tw=wn_wire_story