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January 31, 2005
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
Sound
off in our Discussion Boards.]
By Joseph Giordono,
Stars and Stripes, Mideast edition
 |
| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) An Iraqi man, his face wrapped
in a kheffiyah to protect his identity, casts his ballot Sunday
in Ramadi in Iraq's first free elections in decades. Insurgents
in the city threatened to kill anyone who voted. |
 |
| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) Pfc. Branden Bell of 1st Battalion,
503rd Infantry Regiment, looks around a corner with his sniper
rifle after a roadside bomb destroyed a U.S. Humvee near a Ramadi,
Iraq, polling center. |
 |
| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) Pfc. Branden Bell of 1st Battalion,
503rd Infantry Regiment, looks around a corner with his sniper
rifle after a roadside bomb destroyed a U.S. Humvee near a Ramadi,
Iraq, polling center. |
 |
| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) U.S. and Iraqi troops look
for targets after a roadside bomb destroyed a U.S. Humvee patrolling
a few hundred meters from a polling station in Ramadi, Iraq. |
 |
| (Joseph Giordono / S&S) Sgt. LaTasha Boyd, of the 2nd
Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division,
does a security check Sunday on the first female voter at one
of the polling stations in Ramadi, Iraq. While security concerns
in the city kept many voter away, turnout was high across much
of the country. Iraqis stood in long lines to vote, embracing
democracy in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and
boycott calls. |
RAMADI, Iraq
— Security concerns, roadside bombs and a series of brief gunbattles
kept most Ramadi citizens from participating in Sunday’s historic
Iraqi elections.
One U.S. soldier was killed and at least two others injured by a roadside bomb around 3 a.m. Sunday, according to military officials. In another attack at noon, a Humvee patrolling less than 200 meters from a polling station was hit by another bomb, sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.
The Humvee crew all escaped with minor wounds, but the explosion touched off long bursts of machine-gun fire from Iraqi and American troops manning security positions at the nearby polling site, a large grammar school compound.
According to soldiers who were observing from a nearby rooftop position, the second roadside bomb was planted by a teenage boy who ran into the street and dropped a large plastic bag just moments before a U.S. patrol drove through.
For long minutes after the explosion, ammunition from the Humvee continued to cook off and fire into the air.
Before the explosion, 75 people — including Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq poll workers and special police commandos protecting the site — had voted at the school in eastern Ramadi, U.S. military officials said. At midmorning, the nearby streets had been full of curious residents watching voters walk to the polling station. After the explosion and gunfire, the streets were deserted and no other voters came.
Ramadi’s 400,000 residents were subject of a harassment campaign by insurgents, who promised death to anyone who voted Sunday.
At another polling site in the Sofiya district of Ramadi, the polls were more active. More than 100 people had voted by early afternoon, officials said. There were eight polling stations in the city of Ramadi, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, and they estimated that about 1,000 people cast ballots during the day.
“I’ll never forget this day,” said Pfc. Branden Bell, a 19-year-old infantryman from Napa, Calif., who had been manning the polling entrance closest to the second Humvee explosion.
Bell and another soldier with Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment felt small pieces of shrapnel land on their position after the explosion.
The first Iraqis to vote in Ramadi were the security forces and election workers, who began casting their ballots just after the polls opened at 7 a.m. The first two civilian voters came in at 8 a.m., and they were followed shortly after by a group that included two women.
In a tent near the polling station entrance, three female soldiers
from the 2nd Forward Support Battalion — which deployed
from South Korea along with 4,200 other U.S. troops last fall — helped
perform security checks on the female voters who arrived.
Iraqis who voted said through interpreters they were proud to have participated in a day they thought would never happen. The first two women who voted — arriving in long black robes and headdresses — repeatedly said thanks to Allah and shook nearly every hand in sight.
When one of the women placed her ballot in the large plastic collection bin, she turned her eyes and palms skyward, uttering a short prayer.
Soldiers and Marines
in Iraq certainly knew they were part of something historic, despite
the low turnout in Ramadi.
“I had grandfathers who fought in Korea and World
War II, and I don’t think they really knew they were doing something
special at the time,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Green, a
dog handler attached to the 1-503rd for election day.
“But I think guys know this is big. This is something important.”
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