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One killed in bomb attack on Shi'ite party office
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-18 15:58

A suicide car bomber attacked a Baghdad office used by a major Shi'ite party on Tuesday in the latest insurgent attack aimed at stoking sectarian strife ahead of Jan. 30 polls expected to be dominated by Shi'ites.

Police said one person was killed and seven were wounded by the blast at the office used by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

An Iraqi woman weeps at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad January 18, 2005. The suicide car bomb exploded on Tuesday at a Baghdad office of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a party official said, in the latest attack on Shi'ites before Iraq's January 30 election. The official said there was no immediate word on casualties. [Reuters]

A leading SCIRI official said the dead man was one of the guards at the building. He said guards had opened fire at the suicide bomber's vehicle as it approached a checkpoint.

SCIRI's leader heads a list of mainly Shi'ite candidates expected to win strong support in the elections.

The polls have divided Iraq, with most of the 60 percent Shi'ite majority insisting the vote goes ahead to cement their political dominance after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein, while many Sunni Arabs say the election should be delayed because of widespread violence.

A U.S. Army soldier secures the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad January 18, 2005. The suicide car bomb exploded on Tuesday at a Baghdad office of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a party official said, in the latest attack on Shi'ites before Iraq's January 30 election. [Reuters]

A raging insurgency in Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland means that many Sunnis who want to vote say they are too afraid to do so. Several leading Sunni Arab parties say they will boycott the polls because the results will not be fair.

Sunni Arabs dominated the ruling class under Saddam, but many now fear losing influence, and the insurgency in Iraq is dominated by Sunnis.

Last month, a suicide car bomb at the SCIRI headquarters in Baghdad killed several people, and nearly 70 were killed in twin suicide bombings in the Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala. Insurgents have also attacked representatives of Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

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