Region-by-region review of Iraq's landmark vote

BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (AFP) - Iraqis on Sunday went to the polls for one of the most dangerous and controversial elections of modern times, with wide disparities in turnout and security witnessed across the ethnically divided country.
Herewith is a region-by-region review of the events on Iraq's historic day, from Kurdistan in the north to the port city of Basra in the south.

BAGHDAD
Residents of Iraq's capital turn out for the election but voting is also marred by a spate of mortar and suicide attacks, although many bombers fail to reach the interior of polling stations.
-- Over a dozen people are killed in a spate of suicide bombing attacks mostly aimed at polling stations. The US military said seven such attacks took place, although not all managed to meet their target.
-- The deadliest attack in the country is a suicide bombing outside a polling centre in Baghdad, which kills seven civilians and two policemen.
-- A policeman was killed and four others wounded when a bomber blew himself up near a polling station in the upmarket Mansur district.
-- The suicide attacks are claimed by the group of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in an Internet statement.
-- Four die in a mortar attack on Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City neighbourhood.
-- Justice Minister Malek Douhan al-Hassan escapes an suicide bombing attempt outside his home, which kills a guard and injures four people

SUNNI TRIANGLE
There is little voting in Sunni towns once seen as rebel strongholds with few polling stations open and residents not venturing out to vote.
-- The streets of Fallujah, seized back from rebels in November are desolate, except for the Iraqi soldiers and police lining the area, gripping their rifles.
-- A US soldier is killed early in day in the surrounding province of Al-Anbar but the US military released no details on the circumstances.
-- The head of the city council in Samarra, retaken from insurgents in October, says no residents will vote because of the poor security situation.
-- In Baquba, arms fire reverberates, as the streets remain empty.
-- In Balad, a female voter and a child are killed and 15 others wounded in a mortar attack on a polling station, police say.
-- A British C-130 Hercules transport plane came down northwest of the capital, en route to Balad airfield. There was no immediate word on either casualties or the cause of the crash.

SHIITE STRONGHOLDS
Iraq's long oppressed Shiite majority stream into polling stations in their southern strongholds for elections they hope will grant their community political dominance for the first time in the country's modern history.
-- Queues of voters begin forming outside polling centers in the southern city of Najaf from the minute the stations opened at 0400 GMT.
-- In Iraq's second city of Basra, strong numbers are also reported outside polling stations, despite sporadic mortar attacks.

'TRIANGLE OF DEATH'
To the south of Baghdad, a bomb tears apart a bus of Sunni Arab voters being ferried to a polling station, killing five people and wounding 14, police and hospital sources said.
-- Four hours into the voting polling stations in several towns in Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death south of Baghdad had yet to open, the election commission said.
"In Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah, polling stations have not yet opened their doors," commission spokesman Farid Ayar tells reporters.
-- In Mahawil, a civilian was killed and three policemen wounded, the Polish military said.

NORTHERN IRAQ
The US military applauds a higher than expected turnout, despite fears of a mass boycott by Sunni Arabs and attacks by insurgents in the ethnically divded provinces of Kirkuk and Mosul.
-- Attacks are reported in Mosul, with at least one person killed, as a steady trickle of voters cast their ballots in a city where pre-election registration and campaigning never took place.
-- True to their divided status, inhabitants of the northern oil centre of Kirkuk were uncertain whether to vote with joy or trepidation
-- West of Mosul, in the mainly Turkmen town of Tall Afar, at least eight people were wounded in clashes between insurgents and security forces, medics said.

IRAQI KURDISTAN
In one of the safest areas of post-war Iraq, Kurds flock to polling stations to take part in elections they hope will herald a new era for their long-oppressed community.
-- A heavy police and Iraqi army presence is in evidence around polling stations in Arbil.

01/30/2005 16:45 GMT - AFP