Iraqis vote in referendum

Iraqis voted Saturday in a landmark referendum on a draft constitution that could be a key step in the country's passage to democratic rule.

As the polls opened at 7 a.m., a few people were seen walking down empty streets of Baghdad heavily guarded by Iraqi soldiers and police to schools where polling stations were fortified with concrete barriers against attacks by Sunni-led insurgents determined to wreck the vote.

President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari cast ballots in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament and the U.S. Embassy are based, AP reports.

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