Deputy prime minister says Iraqi elections must go ahead

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's deputy prime minister said holding elections in January will be "a serious challenge," but Sunday he insisted they must go ahead as scheduled. As part of the effort to address security concerns, U.S. troops and Iraqi paramilitary police arrested 43 suspected insurgents in the northern city of Mosul, the military said.\nIn Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb killed six people and injured five others. Two American soldiers were injured in an attack on their convoy in Baghdad.\nBarham Saleh said delaying the scheduled Jan. 30 vote would have "serious ramifications to the political process" and would bolster the cause of terrorists.\n"Under the law it cannot be postponed and the government is working on the premise that the elections will be held on time," Saleh told the BBC.\nIraq's continuing insurgency is hampering reconstruction and threatens the national elections. U.S. officials and their British allies see the elections as a key step toward returning power to Iraqis, a prerequisite for withdrawing occupation forces.\nSunni Muslim politicians have called for postponing the election, although the country's powerful Shiite clergy and the interim government oppose a delay.\nSaturday, the spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, said the government was sticking by the Jan. 30 date after receiving assurances from the Iraqi Electoral Commission that an election could take place even in Sunni areas wracked by the insurgency.\nSaleh acknowledged there were security problems in certain areas but said the assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah would deny the terrorists "a major safe haven."\n"Sticking to that timetable will be difficult, will be a serious challenge," he said. "But delaying elections will be much more difficult because it will have serious ramifications to the political process, to the issue of legitimacy, and surely all of us do not want to give the terrorists the slightest of technical wins in that situation."\nThe blast in Samarra occurred as a minibus drove past a school in the 7-Nissan district of the city, said police Maj. Qahtan Mohammed. All the casualties were passengers in the minibus, he said.\nU.S. and Iraqi troops regained control of Samarra from insurgents during military operations in September but the city remains uneasy.\nMembers of Task Force Olympia -- which is responsible for security in Mosul and northern Iraq -- and Iraqi police commandos conducted a series of raids throughout the city Saturday, the statement said.\nAt least 50 people have been killed in Mosul in the past 10 days. Most of the victims are believed to have been supporters of Iraq's interim government or members of its fledgling security forces.\nIn Mosul, the 43 suspected insurgents were arrested as part of an ongoing operation to re-establish control of Iraq's third-largest city, a military statement said.