BAGHDAD, Iraq — A Kurdish ticket pulled into second place ahead of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's candidates in Iraq's national election after votes were released yesterday from the Kurdish self-governing area of the north.

First election returns from the Sunni heartland confirmed that many Sunnis stayed away from the ballot box, leaving the field to Shiite and Kurdish candidates. A Shiite-dominated ticket backed by the Shiite clergy leads among the 111 candidate lists, with a final tally expected by week's end.

Last week's vote was to elect a 275-member national assembly, which will write a constitution and pick an interim government.

Allawi, who favors strong ties with the U.S., had hoped to emerge as a compromise choice for prime minister, but members of the Shiite cleric-backed ticket say they want one of their own for the top job.

Kurds, estimated at 20 percent of the population, gave most of their votes to a joint ticket made up of the two major Kurdish parties, which was in second with about 24 percent of the votes reported. One of the Kurdish leaders, Jalal Talabani, has announced his candidacy for the presidency.

Allawi's ticket trailed with about 13 percent, with the Shiite ticket leading with about half the votes. Shiites comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people.

Figures released from Salaheddin province, a predominately Sunni area that includes Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, also confirmed suspicions that many Sunnis avoided the polls. With results in from 80 percent of the province's polling stations, the United Iraqi Alliance, which is backed by the country's top Shiite clerics, had the most votes with 27,645 and the Kurdish Alliance had 18,791 votes. However, a party headed by the Sunni Arab president, Ghazi al-Yawer, received only 15,832 votes.

Many Sunni Arabs, estimated at 20 percent of the population and the core of the insurgency, are believed to have stayed home on election day, either out of fear of insurgent reprisal or because of a boycott call by Sunni clerics.

Election officials acknowledged thousands of people in the Sunni-dominated Mosul area who wanted to vote during the balloting were unable to because of security. Fewer than a third of the planned 330 polling centers in Mosul and the surrounding province managed to open on election day, officials said.

• A blast shook an Iraqi army recruiting center in Baghdad today, and police said up to 14 people were killed.

• The Army has identified 129 wounded U.S. soldiers who mistakenly received bills for expenses upon returning home from wars — in some cases instead of final paychecks — and it has forgiven their debts.

One soldier, who lost an arm, expected $4,500 in back pay but instead was billed $1,800 by the Army, which said he had been overpaid for his time as a patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and said he still owed money for travel between the Washington-area hospital, where he received treatment, and Fort Hood in Texas, where he was recovering. Officials also said he owed money for items not found in his returned equipment and had to repay his family-separation stipend.

• A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside the gates of a provincial police headquarters in Baqouba yesterday, killing 15 people and wounding 17, police Col. Mudhahar al-Jubouri said. Many victims were looking for jobs as policemen, al-Jubouri said.

• In Mosul, a suicide bomber wandered into a crowd of security personnel at a hospital yesterday and blew himself up, killing 12 people and wounding seven, U.S. officials said.

• Insurgents shelled a police station in Mosul with more than a dozen mortar rounds yesterday, killing three civilians, police said.

• One Iraqi was killed and four wounded yesterday when mortar shells exploded near the city-council building in Samarra, hospital officials said.

• Hispanics in the U.S. are more inclined to want the U.S. to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately than to want to wait until the situation has stabilized, according to a poll released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Just over half — 51 percent — said they thought troops should be brought home now, while four in 10 — 39 percent — said they should remain, the Pew Hispanic Center said. Among the general population, more than half say they want to see U.S. troops stay until the situation has stabilized, according to recent polling.