U.S. ambassador recognizes Iraqi election intimidation

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq acknowledged serious problems ahead of next weekend's election but assured on Sunday that "great efforts" were being made so every Iraqi can vote. In an audiotape posted on the Web, a speaker claiming to be Iraq's most-feared terrorist declared "fierce war" on democracy, raising the stakes in the vote.\nRebels who have vowed to disrupt the balloting blew up a designated polling station near Hillah, south of Baghdad, and stormed a police station in Ramadi, west of the capital, authorities said. A U.S. soldier was killed Saturday on a security patrol in Mosul, the U.S. command said Sunday.\nU.S. and Iraqi officials fear more such attacks in the run-up to Sunday's election and have announced massive security measures to protect voters. Iraqis will choose a 275-seat National Assembly and provincial councils in Iraq's 18 provinces in the first nationwide balloting since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.\nLarge turnouts are expected among Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims in the south and minority Kurds in the northeast. But the big question is whether Sunni Arabs, who form the core of the insurgency, will defy rebel threats and their clergy's calls for a boycott and participate in substantial numbers.\nFailure of significant numbers of Sunnis to participate would call into question the legitimacy of the new Iraqi leadership, widening the gulf among the country's ethnic and religious groups and setting the stage for even more turmoil.\n"The Iraqis will be just fine," Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice told reporters Sunday at the White House. "They're starting a process and this is an important step, a first step for them in this democratic process."\nIn a series of interviews Sunday on American television talk shows, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte acknowledged an increase in rebel intimidation of Iraqi officials and security forces and said serious security problems remain in the Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad.\n"But security measures are being taken, by both the multinational forces here in Iraq as well as the Iraqi armed forces and police," Negroponte told "Fox News Sunday."\n"There will be some problematic areas ... But even there, great efforts are being made to enable every Iraqi eligible to do so to be able to vote," he said.\nUnderscoring the threat, a speaker identifying himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- the leader of Iraq's al-Qaida affiliate -- condemned the election, branding candidates as "demi-idols" and saying those who vote for them "are infidels" -- a clear threat to the safety of all those who participate in the balloting.\n"We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," the speaker said in an audiotape posted Sunday on an Islamic Web site. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it."\nThe speaker warned Iraqis to be careful of "the enemy's plan to implement so-called democracy in your country." He said the Americans have engineered the election to install Shiite Muslims in power. Al-Zarqawi has in the past branded Shiites as heretics.\nThe United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi's capture or death -- the same amount as for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.\nMost of the insurgents are believed to be Sunni Arabs, who lost influence and privilege with the fall of their patron Saddam. Their ranks have been reinforced by non-Iraqi Arab extremists who have come to wage holy war against the Americans.