The Telegraph, 11 December 2005.
Iraqi insurgents have signalled a major shift on January's parliamentary elections, urging Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al-Qa'eda militants not to attack polling stations.
Ba'athist loyalists boycotted Iraq's last set of elections and intimidated would-be voters out of participation.
Now guerrillas in the volatile Anbar province say they are prepared to protect voting stations from al-Qa'eda fighters.
Ali Mahmoud, a former army officer and rocket specialist under Saddam's Ba'ath party, said: "We want to see a nationalist government that will have a balance of interests. So our Sunni brothers will be safe when they vote."
"Sunnis should vote to make political gains. We have sent leaflets telling al-Qa'eda that they will face us if they attack voters."
The warning to al-Qa'eda suggests there may be a wider rift between Saddam loyalists and fundamentalist militants, who have previously co-operated in their efforts to drive out coalition forces.
Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who leads al-Qa'eda in Iraq, has become a particular target of Ba'athist criticism.
"Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation," said Abu Abdullah, a Ba'athist insurgent leader.
The shift in favour of the elections will be encouraging for Washington, which has long hoped Sunni factions will abandon violence in favour of democratic participation.
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Citation: "Ba'athist insurgents to protect Iraq elections," The Telegraph, 11 December 2005.
Original URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/11/uirq.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/12/11/ixportaltop.html
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