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Soldiers, Prisoners, Displaced People Vote Early ahead of Iraq Election

A man picks up a protective face mask before entering a polling station to cast his vote, two days ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections in a special process, at the Sharya camp, in Duhok, Iraq October 8, 2021. (Reuters)
A man picks up a protective face mask before entering a polling station to cast his vote, two days ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections in a special process, at the Sharya camp, in Duhok, Iraq October 8, 2021. (Reuters)
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Soldiers, Prisoners, Displaced People Vote Early ahead of Iraq Election

A man picks up a protective face mask before entering a polling station to cast his vote, two days ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections in a special process, at the Sharya camp, in Duhok, Iraq October 8, 2021. (Reuters)
A man picks up a protective face mask before entering a polling station to cast his vote, two days ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections in a special process, at the Sharya camp, in Duhok, Iraq October 8, 2021. (Reuters)

Soldiers, prisoners and displaced people voted in special early polls in Iraq on Friday as the country prepared for a Sunday general election where turnout will show how much faith voters have left in a still young democratic system.

Many Iraqis say they will not vote, having watched established parties they do not trust sweep successive elections and bring little improvement to their lives.

Groups drawn from the Shiite majority are expected to remain in the driving seat.

Iraq is safer than it has been for years and violent sectarianism is less of a feature than ever since Iraq vanquished ISIS in 2017 with the help of an international military coalition.

But endemic corruption and mismanagement has meant many people in the country of about 40 million are without work, and lack healthcare, education and electricity.

Friday's early ballot included voting among the population of more than one million people who are still displaced from the battle against ISIS.

Some said they were either unable or unwilling to vote.

"I got married in the displacement camp where I live, and neither I nor my husband will vote," said a 45-year-old woman who gave her name as Umm Amir. She spoke to Reuters by phone and did not want to disclose her exact location.

"Politicians visited us before the last election (in 2018) and promised to help us return to our towns. That never materialized. We've been forgotten."

2019 protests
In 2019, mass anti-government protests swept across Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south, toppled a government and forced the current government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to hold this election six months early.

The government also introduced a new voting law that it says will bring more independent voices into parliament and can help reform. It has been trying to encourage a greater turnout.

The reality, according to many Iraqis, Western diplomats and analysts, is that the bigger, more established parties will sweep the vote once again.

Dozens of activists who oppose those parties have been threatened and killed since the 2019 protests, scaring many reformists into not participating in the vote. Iraqi officials blame armed groups with links to Iran for the killings, a charge those groups deny.

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Hezbollah Confirms a 7th Top Commander Was Killed in Israeli Strikes in Recent Days

Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
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Hezbollah Confirms a 7th Top Commander Was Killed in Israeli Strikes in Recent Days

Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)

The Israeli military said Sunday it has killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the Lebanese group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The military said Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council, was killed on Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed his death, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.

The Israeli military said it carried out another targeted strike on Beirut later on Sunday, with details to follow.

Hezbollah had earlier confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in Friday's strike that killed Nasrallah. The Israeli military said earlier that Karaki was killed in the airstrike, which targeted an underground compound in Beirut where Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah figures were meeting.

Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed in the strike, including two close associates of Nasrallah, one of whom was in charge of his security detail.

Wreckage from the strike was still smoldering more than two days later. On Sunday, Associated Press journalists saw smoke over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what’s left of their homes and others to pay respects, pray or simply to see the destruction.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that Israel's airstrikes had “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure, but he warned the group will work quickly to rebuild it.

“I think people are safer without him walking around,” Kirby said of Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough. … Much of their command structure has now been wiped out.”

Kirby, who spoke during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” sidestepped questions about whether the Biden administration agrees with how the Israelis are targeting Hezbollah leaders.  

The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary ceasefire that was floated by the US, France and other countries last week as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly.

Earlier this month, Hezbollah was also targeted by a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies that was widely blamed on Israel. A wave of Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon has killed at least 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — in less than two weeks, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon by the latest strikes. The government estimates that around 250,000 are in shelters, with three to four times as many staying with friends or relatives, or camping out on the streets, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin told the AP.

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets and missiles into northern Israel, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas. No Israelis have been killed since the latest wave of strikes targeting top Hezbollah leaders began on Sept. 20.

Qaouq was a veteran member of Hezbollah going back to the 1980s and served as Hezbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. He often appeared in local media, where he would comment on politics and security developments, and he gave eulogies at the funerals of senior fighters. The United States announced sanctions against him in 2020.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies that consider themselves part of an Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” against Israel.

Israel has responded with waves of airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily ratcheted up to the brink of all-out war, raising fears of a region-wide conflagration.

Israel says it is determined to return some 60,000 of its citizens to communities in the north that were evacuated nearly a year ago. Hezbollah has said it will only halt its rocket fire if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which has proven elusive despite months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.