Iraqis voted under fire in yesterday's national elections, with bombs and mortars killing at least 38 people and wounding more than 100 others, despite heavy security across the country.
In the worst single incident, a residential building in northern Baghdad was flattened by dynamite, killing 25.
The US president Barack Obama praised the millions of voters who turned out despite the violence
"I congratulate the people of Iraq for casting their ballots in this important parliamentary election. I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote today," he said in a statement.
Prime minister Nouri al Maliki praised the conduct of Iraq's security forces.
"This day showed the failure of the terrorists and the victory of the will of the people," he said on state television.
Far from being deterred, voters were in festive mood throughout much of Baghdad.
"Today we are very happy, like any citizen of Iraq," said Jamal Abdullah, 52, a train driver who had taken his family to the polling station. "Two mortars landed very near our house, but it still didn't stop us coming out with all the family."
Major Gen Ahmed Saidi, in charge of security for the Khakh area of Baghdad, said his forces had located and defused 20 makeshift bombs during the previous 72 hours. One of about 200,000 police and army personnel deployed in the Iraqi capital, he proclaimed a victory over the insurgents who had vowed to derail the election.
"The terrorists have lost in their attempts today," he said. "We are now moving ahead and these elections will be a final blow to the terrorists who have disrupted our lives for the past five years."
By the close of polls, at 5pm, there had been limited allegations of fraud committed yesterday, either by Iraqi or international monitors. Dozens of cross-party monitoring teams were deployed at each polling station.
However, Eyad Allawi, the leader of the Iraqiyya party and seen as the main rival to Mr Nouri al Maliki, called for an investigation of election officials, accusing them of lax procedures and demanding an accurate vote count.
"There was major confusion inside and outside Iraq in the voting centres and that leaves a question mark over the IHEC's role," said Mr Allawi, referring to the Independent High Electoral Commission.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
The biog
Occupation: Key marker and auto electrician
Hometown: Ghazala, Syria
Date of arrival in Abu Dhabi: May 15, 1978
Family: 11 siblings, a wife, three sons and one daughter
Favourite place in UAE: Abu Dhabi
Favourite hobby: I like to do a mix of things, like listening to poetry for example.
Favourite Syrian artist: Sabah Fakhri, a tenor from Aleppo
Favourite food: fresh fish
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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