Iraq's election commission says final results from the January 30th vote will be delayed, as militants intensify their campaign of post-election violence. Election officials say results, expected Thursday, will not be ready because votes from some 300 ballot boxes must be recounted after reports of irregularities.
Meanwhile, gunmen in the southern city of Basra killed an Iraqi journalist working for the U.S.-funded television station Al Hurra. Abdul-Hussein Khazal and his three-year-old son were killed outside their home today (Wednesday). In Baghdad, three Kurdish politicians were reported killed in an ambush in the Haifa Street district. A gunbattle followed between militants and U.S. troops. In a separate incident, kidnappers abducted a senior interior ministry official (Colonel Riad Allawi). North of the capital, near Balad, the U.S. military says an American soldier was killed and another wounded when their convoy was attacked. Two suspected insurgents were detained following the attack.
