Three Iraqi policemen killed in S Iraq

Three Iraqi policemen were killed by a collected bomb in a southern city, sources with Iraqi police said on Friday.

The Iraqi police found a group of explosive devices in different parts of Diwaniyah city, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad Thursday. While being transported to a car to the U.S. base, one of the explosive devices exploded, killing 3 policemen and wounding 16 others, the source added.

The explosion occurred at the headquarter of the Diwaniyah police.

Some of the wounded were seriously affected and shifted to the nearest hospital, according to the source.

Iraq encouraged by US reassurances, minister says

Iraq's foreign minister has told The Associated Press his government is very encouraged by reassurances from the Obama administration that there will be no quick withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Hoshyar Zebari says it is "very, very critical" that American troops remain in Iraq in 2009 as the nation begins holding a series of elections, starting with provincial voting Saturday.

He said Friday that Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had both delivered the message that there would be no quick disengagement, rapid U.S. military pullout or irresponsible decisions regarding Iraq. He said this was very encouraging.

Tens of Thousands Vote Early in Iraq

Tens of thousands of policemen and soldiers, doctors at hospitals, prisoners clad in orange jumpsuits and residents forced from contested towns cast early ballots Wednesday in provincial elections that will redraw Iraq's political landscape.

Regular voting is scheduled for Saturday to choose the equivalent of state legislatures in 14 of the country's 18 provinces. But early voting was allowed for certain groups, in particular the security forces, which will be deployed as part of a security clampdown. On election day, the government has ordered a nighttime curfew, the closing of Iraq's borders and airport, and a ban on traffic in towns and cities.

There was scattered violence Wednesday. Assailants gunned down two policemen in Tuz Khurmatu, 40 miles south of the disputed city of Kirkuk, and a bombing killed a policeman in the northern city of Mosul. But attacks so far have been relatively few compared with the onslaught that preceded Iraq's elections in 2005. Sunni Arabs largely boycotted that vote, delivering disproportionate power to Shiite Arabs and Kurds in some provinces.

Casting his vote at Nidhal High School for Girls, Lt. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi praised the quieter climate this time and suggested that sectarian tensions -- the Sunni and Shiite conflict that racked Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 -- had subsided.

"Today, these feelings have vanished," he said, his finger stained blue to prevent multiple voting. "Stability is apparent this time, and that was our ambition."

The three predominantly Kurdish provinces, part of an autonomous region in the north, will hold elections later this year. Voting in the province around Kirkuk, a city riven by competing ethnic claims, was delayed indefinitely.

In the 14 other provinces, where about 14,400 candidates are vying for 440 seats on the councils, the elections could bring a new alignment in almost each locale.

The Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose popularity has been bolstered by the decline in violence, is seeking to chip away at the power of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which controls four of the nine predominantly Shiite southern provinces. Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric whose men have fought rival Shiites, the army and the U.S. military, are backing lists of nominally independent candidates.

"What makes us happy is the preparations we are seeing today -- a slap in the face of those who are betting that Iraqis will not go to the ballot boxes because they are despairing," Maliki said during a televised election rally in the southern city of Amarah.

In predominantly Sunni regions, secular and tribal forces have sought to end the near-monopoly on power of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the few Sunni parties to take part in the 2005 elections. In two provinces, sectarian and ethnic leadership may actually shift. In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, Sunni Arabs expect to take a majority of seats on a council dominated by Shiites and Kurds. They expect to win another majority in Nineveh province, around the city of Mosul, where Kurds now control 31 of 37 seats.

Signs of potential conflict emerged Wednesday, too.

In Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, some residents stocked up on food, worrying that the victory of candidates campaigning under the umbrella of U.S.-backed tribes that defeated insurgents in 2007 might inspire reprisal attacks by insurgents or rivals in the Islamic Party.

More than 25,000 Kurds, displaced under the government of Saddam Hussein, were allowed to vote in Nineveh. Election officials said the number was far short of the 100,000 who demanded the right to vote.

"There is concern that these lists will be manipulated and exploited," said Ahmad Awwad, a candidate for al-Hadba-a, a Sunni Arab party in the province.

Iraqi's Shiite political parties vie for power in south

n Najaf, the heart of Shiite Muslim Iraq, pedestrians linger on the sidewalks of a busy bazaar, men smoke fruit-flavored shisha tobacco in cafes, and a new first-class hotel with sparkling marble floors and dripping chandeliers is almost full. The battered capital of Baghdad seems much farther than 100 miles away.

Beneath this veneer of calm, however, an uneasy power struggle among southern Iraq's Shiite majority has emerged. In simple terms, the political battle can be understood in near opposites: nationalism vs. federalism, status quo vs. change, secularism vs. religion.

The Shiite parties that are vying for several hundred seats in Saturday's provincial elections are the State of Law coalition, affiliated with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Dawa party, and its opponent, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. Candidates from two party slates backed by the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also have entered the race.

The splintering among Shiite parties in this crucial vote points to the kind of Iraq - fractured, very likely - that U.S. troops could leave behind as they withdraw in the coming years.

"It will be a turning point in deciding the political map of Iraq," said Zuhair al-Hakim, a spokesman for the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

A few years ago, Najaf, one of the holiest sites for Shiites because of its gilded Imam Ali shrine, was the site of fierce battles between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militiamen from Sadr's Mahdi Army. For now, at least, the bloodletting has stopped.

Signs of the election season are everywhere. Candidate banners flap above the streets and posters paper storefront walls. Little boys toss campaign cards through open windows as cars idle in checkpoint traffic.

On Saturday, the head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq made a campaign stop at a soccer stadium, speaking to several thousand jubilant supporters. Shielded by a glass cage and flanked by dozens of armed guards, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim urged voters to cast their ballots, pick competent candidates and pitch in to monitor the polls.

"We want to develop the public services," he said. "We want to change Najaf into an international city."

Founded by exiles in Iran in 1982, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq has called for creating a semiautonomous region in the south, not unlike Kurdistan in the north. Such power would enable the party to seize control of the region's rich oil reserves and religious sites.

"Having regions and federalism will strengthen local economies, bring more job opportunities and protect the provinces from coups and dictatorships," Hakim said.

Najaf and surrounding areas long have been strongholds of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, but the State of Law coalition is proving to be a formidable opponent. Polls point to a rise in Maliki's popularity stemming from his administration's military clampdown on sectarian strife and the security forces agreement with the U.S. that he helped hammer out. That deal, which took effect Jan. 1, secured the transfer of power from American to Iraqi troops.

Maliki's party is pressing for a strong central government, as well as a more pragmatic approach to government. Now that security has improved, it maintains, Iraq can start building itself.

"We put the train on the rails, which is the most important thing," said Majeed Mustafa Zani, a leader in the State of Law coalition and a professor of Islamic economics. "Because this mission (of building Iraq) is so big, it takes more time."

Critics charge that Maliki shows signs of a strongman in the making. Besides setting up military forces that report directly to him, Maliki has established tribal councils in the south that help enforce security in neighborhoods. Maliki's opponents are angered further by the flood of government money to the councils, which are supporting his provincial candidates.

Artwork dedicated to shoe thrower

BAGHDAD (AP) — When an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at George W. Bush last month at a Baghdad press conference, the attack spawned a flood of Web quips, political satire and street rallies across the Arab world.

Now, it's inspired a work of art.

A sofa-sized shoe statue was formally unveiled to the public Thursday in Tikrit, the hometown of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari described his fiberglass-and-copper work as a homage to the pride of the Iraqi people.

The statue also has inscribed a poem honoring Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist. Al-Zeidi was charged with assaulting a foreign leader, but the trial was postponed after his lawyer sought to reduce the charges.

Iraq to deny licence to US Blackwater guards

Iraq will not renew the licence of Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm accused of killing Iraqi civilians while protecting U.S. diplomats, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.

"The operating permission for the firm Blackwater will not be renewed. Its chance is zero," said Alaa al-Taie, head of the press department at the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

"It is not acceptable to Iraqis and there are legal points against it, like killing Iraqis with their weapons."

A U.S. embassy official confirmed that the embassy had been informed that the licence would not be renewed, and said it was working on finding a new arrangement to cover its security.

"We don't have specifics about dates. We are working with the government of Iraq and our contractors to address the implications of this decision," the official said.

Blackwater employs hundreds of heavily-armed guards with a fleet of armoured vehicles and helicopters to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The firm boasts that no American officials have been killed while under its protection.

But Iraqi officials have been furious with the firm since a September 2007 shooting in which Blackwater guards opened fire in traffic, killing at least 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.

One Blackwater guard has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter over that incident, and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors.

Five others are awaiting trial next year on manslaughter charges. The firm denies wrongdoing and says its staff were responding to a perceived threat.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki branded the incident a "massacre" and complained when the U.S. State Department subsequently renewed Blackwater's contract.

U.S. forces who occupied Iraq after the 2003 invasion granted their Western security contractors blanket immunity from Iraqi law. But that was revoked at the beginning of this year, and security contractors can now be prosecuted in Iraq.