{"id":482,"date":"2005-01-04T21:15:48","date_gmt":"2005-01-05T03:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=482"},"modified":"2005-01-04T21:16:21","modified_gmt":"2005-01-05T03:16:21","slug":"baghdad-governor-assassinated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":"Baghdad Governor Assassinated"},"content":{"rendered":"

More blood to halt democracy<\/a> in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Insurgents shot and killed Baghdad’s provincial governor and struck at the headquarters of an elite police unit yesterday in a series of attacks against Iraqi government targets aimed at disrupting the January 30 elections.<\/p>\n

With only four weeks to go, the increase in violence, particularly in the capital, led to renewed calls for the poll to be delayed. Ghazi al-Yawer, interim president, suggested that the United Nations should decide whether elections would be held on time. However, a senior US state department official said that “absolutely” the elections would go ahead as planned. The security situation was not deteriorating and was actually “a little better” than six weeks ago.<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

Iraq’s electoral commission has also insisted that the Transitional Administrative Law governing the elections states they must be held before January 31, with no mechanism for delay.<\/p>\n

The growing insecurity has already diminished participation in the elections. There are virtually no activists out canvassing in the capital and some parties have not even announced a candidate list for fear their members will be targeted.<\/p>\n

The shooting of Ali al-Haidari, provincial governor, was the latest in a string of assassinations of local officials that appears to be deterring influential Iraqis, particularly in the Sunni Arab areas, from seeking high-profile political roles. Witnesses said three cars loaded with gunmen pulled alongside Mr Haidari’s four-car motorcade as he drove through the north-east part of the city and then opened fire.<\/p>\n

Insurgents associated with the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the killing, warning that “every traitor and supporter of the Jews and Christians” would suffer the same fate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do. Not. Delay. The. Vote.<\/p>\n

To do so now would trumpet the message that assassination can prevent putting the government into the hands of the Iraqi people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More blood to halt democracy in Iraq. Insurgents shot and killed Baghdad’s provincial governor and struck at the headquarters of an elite police unit yesterday in a series of attacks against Iraqi government targets aimed at disrupting the January 30 elections. With only four weeks to go, the increase in violence, particularly in the capital, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}