Sunni Arabs urged 'No' vote in referendum
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-08 19:19

That "no" campaign came to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Friday night when the local division of the party distributed about 150 copies of the constitution after prayers at the Tikrit Mosque and urged the worshippers to reject it.

"We brought copies of the constitution here from Baghdad so that you could see it and know the reasons that our party is calling on Sunnis to vote "no,'" Tal'at Dawoud, a senior local party official, said in a speech after evening prayers on Friday, the Muslim day of worship.

Many minority Sunnis, most of whom live in central and western Iraq, believe the constitution would create two powerful and wealthy regions that exclude them: one controlled by Kurds in the north and another by Shiites in the south.

Sunni-led insurgents are seeking to undermine the vote with attacks that have killed 304 people the past two weeks.

In the latest violence, insurgents killed Haj Abdul Bajid Ahmed Al-Jibori, a member of the local district council, in a drive-by shooting about 22 miles southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the north, said police Brig. Sarhad Qader.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol, wounded one civilian, and a similar explosion aimed at an Iraqi army patrol wounded four soldiers, police said.

In Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, a drive-by shooting on a nearby highway wounded five soldiers in an Iraqi army patrol, police said.