BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein did not vote in Iraq's historic election, but he could have if he had turned up at a polling station, officials said yesterday.

The former dictator was eligible to vote as an Iraqi citizen with no criminal record. Though accused of crimes against humanity and genocide, he has not been convicted.

"If Saddam had wanted to vote he would have been entitled to do so but he would have had to go to a polling station in person," said Farid Ayar, spokesman for Iraq's Electoral Commission.

There was no system for absentee voting in Iraq in Sunday's election, though many Iraqis living abroad cast ballots.

Ex-Abu Ghraib guard pleads guilty in deal

FORT HOOD, Texas — A former Abu Ghraib guard pleaded guilty yesterday to battery and two other charges in the Iraqi prison-abuse scandal as part of a deal with prosecutors on the eve of his trial.

Sgt. Javal Davis, 27, also pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and making a false official statement to Army investigators after photographs of naked and abused prisoners became public last spring. Davis, from Roselle, N.J., will not be tried on two other charges he had faced: conspiracy and maltreating detainees.

A jury of officers and soldiers will be selected today for sentencing. Davis admitted yesterday that he stepped on the hands and feet of some of the seven detainees brought into his section of Abu Ghraib for punishment after a November 2003 disturbance in a prison tent camp nearby. He said he also fell with full weight on top of them.

In a separate hearing yesterday, an Army reservist in a military-intelligence unit was sentenced to 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy and maltreating detainees at the prison.

Spc. Roman Krol, 23, of Randolph, Mass., admitted pouring water on the naked detainees in October 2003, forcing them to crawl around the prison and to throwing a foam football at the prisoners while they were handcuffed on the floor.

Krol said other Abu Ghraib guards were present at the time, and that Pvt. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the abuse, made the detainees do jumping jacks while naked. Graner was convicted last month for his role in the scandal.

Last month 3rd time troop deaths hit 100

WASHINGTON — January was the third month since the U.S. invasion of Iraq that U.S. troop deaths reached or exceeded 100, and it was one of the deadliest months for the National Guard and Reserve.

According to the Pentagon's latest count, at least 100 died in January. An Associated Press tally put the figure at 102. Of the total, 31 were killed in a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crash Jan. 26.

The Pentagon also said yesterday, in its weekly update on the number wounded in action in Iraq, that the total now stands at 10,770, up 152 from a week earlier and up about 500 over the last four weeks.

The only months deadlier than January for U.S. troops in Iraq were last November, when 138 died, and last April, with 135.

As of yesterday, at least 1,434 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,096 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said.