Iraq's voters show faith in Maliki regime

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has finished first in provincial elections, strengthening the central government and weakening the religious parties that dominated after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But Iraqis still voted along sectarian or ethnic lines with Mr Maliki's successes all coming in Shia-dominated provinces.

The election commission announced yesterday that the premier's "State of Law" coalition had won 38 per cent of the votes cast in Baghdad and 37 per cent in Basra, Iraq's two largest cities. It also finished first in seven other provinces south of Baghdad. Among the Sunni Arabs, nationalist and secular parties did well.

Mr Maliki will be able to claim that his policy of strengthening the central government, which saw him confront at different times last year the Shia militia of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the US government and the Kurds, has been endorsed by voters. The elections to the powerful provincial councils in 14 out of 18 provinces are seen as a preview for the parliamentary elections in December.

The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), which had been the largest Shia party, did badly, winning fewer votes than Sadr followers in Baghdad and 11.6 per cent of the vote in Basra because its rulers were seen as failing.

The Prime Minister did well in part because Iraqis see security improving compared with the Sunni-Shia civil war of 2005-7 when, at its worst, 3,000 people died every month. In January this number fell to 199, the lowest figure since the US invasion. But in a sign that Iraq remains one of the most violent countries in the world, a bomber blew himself up yesterday in the Kurdish town of Khanaqin, Diyala province, killing at least 16 people.

The election so far has had two contradictory effects: it has reinforced the popular mandate of the government; but it has also heightened the political temperature in provinces such as Diyala, where control is contested by Sunni, Shia and Kurds. "The terrorists want to destroy the happiness of the Kurds over their election victory in Khanaqin," said Salahudin Kokha, a Kurdish leader.

There are also heightened tensions in the Sunni Anbar province where US troops were asked to stand by in case of trouble. A leader of the Awakening Council, the movement of tribal leaders and former insurgents who turned against al-Qa'ida and allied themselves with the US, said the vote had been stolen by Sunni rivals.

The elections have also led to important changes in the northern province of Nineveh which is contested between Sunni Arabs and Kurds and has remained very violent. The council had a Kurdish majority because of a Sunni boycott in 2005. But in Saturday's poll the Sunni al-Hadba bloc won 48.4 percent of the votes.

The voting shows that Mr Maliki and his Dawa party are stronger but the significance can be exaggerated. Although he fought a secular campaign, on important decisions Mr Maliki does not generally act without seeking the opinion of the Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The election has also been painted as a setback for Iranian influence but Mr Maliki is still going to keep close relations with Tehran while remaining on good terms with the US. One test of the success of the election will be how far the results are accepted by the losers.

UN chief visits Iraq after peaceful local vote

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on Friday, almost a week after the country held its most peaceful election since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, officials said.

Ban's unannounced visit followed a trip to Afghanistan, another battlefield in the U.S. war on terrorism launched by former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, and to India and Pakistan.

Ban was expected to meet Iraqi officials to discuss last Saturday's provincial election and other issues as Iraq begins to emerge from years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the invasion.

The United Nations operates under heavy security and maintains a relatively low profile in Iraq, a legacy of the truck bomb that destroyed its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003, killing then U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and other U.N. workers.

But it played a big role in helping to organise the Jan. 31 regional elections, which did not witness a single major militant attack anywhere in the country.

Preliminary results released on Thursday showed that allies of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki scored spectacular gains across Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim south.

Elsewhere in the country, once dominant Sunni Arabs who boycotted Iraq's last local polls in 2005 regained political power in areas where their exclusion from local politics had fuelled resentment and a lingering insurgency.

Turkish warplanes strike PKK targets in N Iraq

Turkish General Staff said on Friday that air strikes have been waged against targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq during the last two days, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

General Staff Communication Department Chief Gen. Metin Gurak was quoted as saying at a weekly press briefing in capital Ankara on Friday that Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets in Hakurk region during Feb. 4-5.

Necessary precautions were taken as usual during the air operation to avoid any harm to civilians, he added.

He said two PKK members were captured and one PKK member surrendered to Turkish Security Forces during the counter-terrorism activities carried out by Turkish Armed Forces since Jan. 30.

The Turkish forces take tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended on Oct. 8 the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.

US to be 'more aggressive' with Iraq on political reform

Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States would have to be "more aggressive" in prodding Iraq's government on forging political reform.

Biden said before heading off to Munich on the first overseas trip by a key player in the Obama administration that last week's provincial elections in Iraq had shown that progress was being made but more needed to be done.

He said Iraq's leaders had not "gotten their political arrangements together yet."

"Our administration is going to have to be very deeply involved not only keeping the commitment that we've made drawing down our troops in an orderly fashion consistent with what we said."

He said the administration would have to be "much more aggressive ... forcing them to deal with those issues."