Crucial Iraqi elections: Death suffering continues

Insurgents killed five &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/war/2003/03/23/44879.html ' target=_blank>American soldiers in separate attacks Friday in Baghdad and blasted more polling stations across the country, sending a message that if Iraqis suffer deaths and injuries on election day, "you have only yourselves to blame."

A U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopter crashed Friday night in southwestern Baghdad, U.S. officials said. There was no word on the fate of the crew. Four Iraqi police were killed in a car bombing in Baghdad.

With crucial national elections only two days away, Iraqi officials announced the arrests of three more purported lieutenants of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/375/14782_.html ' target=_blank>Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, including the Jordanian terror mastermind's military adviser and chief of operations in Baghdad, reports Newsday.

According to the Turkish Press, Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton said that three soldiers were killed and another wounded in the explosion of a makeshift bomb in a western district of Baghdad.

Another two soldiers were killed and three wounded Friday in two separate incidents in the capital, bringing to 1,412 the total number of US servicemen who died in Iraqi since the invasion almost two years ago.

The bullet-riddled bodies of six &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/20/93/375/10079_iraqi.html ' target=_blank>Iraqi soldiers were found Friday in the western city of Ramadi, where two more people were killed and eight wounded in fighting between Iraqi forces and insurgents.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih says in the last two weeks the Iraqi authorities have arrested 12 other leaders of the terrorist network and two thousand lower-ranking members.

One of the suspects arrested last week is alleged to have been the bomb maker responsible the August 2003 attack on the United Nations compound in Baghdad, and several other deadly blasts.