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An Iraqi casts her ballot at a polling station - Source: Reuters -
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A car bomb exploded in Iraq's holy city of Najaf, killing four
Iranian pilgrims a day before a parliamentary election that
Islamist insurgents have vowed to wreck with violence, officials
said.
The blast gutted two tour buses parked near the Imam Ali shrine,
which draws millions of Shiite faithful from Iraq and Iran each
year.
Salim Nema, a Najaf health official, said the attack wounded 54
people, including 17 Iraqis and 37 Iranians.
At least 49 people have been killed in the last few days of
campaigning, some of them soldiers and police voting early.
Sunday's election is a test for Iraq's young democracy, and will
help determine whether Iraq can avoid relapsing into violence as US
forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bid to win a second term on a
platform of providing services and security is under challenge from
former Shiite partners and from a cross-sectarian, secularist group
headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Insurgents have warned Iraqis, especially minority Sunni Arabs
dominant under Saddam Hussein, to stay at home on Sunday.
Sunni Islamist militants say the vote will solidify power for
the Shiite majority they see as heretical and incompetent.
The election is unfolding as global investors weigh opportunities
in Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves but is
also desperate to diversify a shattered economy.
The blast in Najaf, where officials hope religious tourism will
fuel rebuilding and growth, blew out windows of nearby hotels and
left a metre-wide crater in the pavement.
Iranian women visiting when the bomb went off wailed
nearby.
"These are Saddamists who hope to prevent transparent democracy in
Iraq. Even if all Iranians here today had been martyred, we would
still come to Najaf," said Iranian pilgrim Ahmed Rafi.
No clear winner may emerge from the election, setting the scene for
protracted negotiations to form a coalition government and perhaps
making Iraq vulnerable to renewed violence.
Accustomed to bloodshed after seven years of violence, some Iraqis,
such as shopkeeper Jabbar Radhi, struck a defiant tone.
"Nothing will shake us, not killings, not explosions."
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