BAGHDAD, 18 October 2005 — US warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a weekend roadside blast, the military said yesterday. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians.
Iraq’s electoral commission said it intended to audit “unusually high” numbers in results coming from most provinces in Saturday’s landmark referendum.
The commission’s statement came as Sunni Arab lawmaker Meshaan Al-Jubouri claimed fraud had occurred in the vote — including instances of voting in hotly contested regions by pro-constitution Shiites from other areas — repeating earlier claims of election-fixing made by other Sunni officials over the weekend.
“Statements coming from most governorates indicating such high numbers that require us to recheck, compare and audit them, as they are unusually high according to the international standards,” the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said in a statement.
The commission said it would take random samples from ballot boxes from areas reporting “very high percentages or too low percentages in the results.”
It did not specify which provinces the unusual reports were coming from, or say whether the unusual numbers could effect the outcome.
Further delaying the count and the posting of final results from Saturday’s vote, a sandstorm swept over Baghdad yesterday, grounding air travel into the capital. Vote tallies still have to be flown in from the provinces, and workers at the central counting center in the capital were still only working on results that arrived from Baghdad and its outskirts.
The commission said it would “need a few more days” to reach a final result, particularly given the need to check the unusual numbers.
Figures reported by elections officials in the provinces to The Associated Press indicated that the constitution appeared to have passed, with the Sunni Arab attempt to veto it falling short.
On Saturday, a roadside bomb killed five US soldiers in a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi. On Sunday, a group of about two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage; they were hit by US airstrikes, the military and witnesses said.
The military said the crowd was setting another roadside bomb when F-15 warplanes hit them, killing about 20 people it described as “terrorists.”
But several residents and one local leader said they were civilians gathering to gawk at and take pieces of the wreckage, as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit. US troops had closed off the area for hours after Saturday’s killing of the soldiers, so Sunday morning was the first chance for people to view it.
Tribal leader Chiad Saad said the airstrike killed 25 civilians, and several others said the same thing, although they refused to give their names out of fear for their safety.
The other deaths occurred in the nearby village of Al-Bu Faraj. The military said a group of gunmen opened fire on a Cobra attack helicopter that spotted their position. The Cobra returned fire, killing about 10. The men ran into a nearby house, where gunmen were seen unloading weapons before an F/A-18 warplane bombed the building, killing 40 insurgents, the military said.
Witnesses said at least 14 of the dead were civilians. After a man was wounded in an airstrike, he was brought into a nearby building that was struck by warplanes, said the witnesses, who refused to give their names out of fear for their safety.
Associated Press Television News video from the scene showed the victims included at least two children and one woman. Witnesses said seven other children were among the dead. APTN also showed two children among the wounded at Ramadi General Hospital.
