Iraq's political-campaign season in full swing as violence continues

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Despite continuing violence, Iraq's lively and colorful political-campaign season was in full swing Saturday, with candidates using airwaves and the streets to grab voters' attention in the weeks before Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

The campaigning has included rowdy demonstrations like a downtown rally in support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr late Saturday morning and catchy radio jingles: "Come and salute our list," a singer bellows during one radio ad for former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "All parties are united on our list."

To create buzz, the newly formed Iraq Future Gathering ticket has organized youth soccer tournaments and Iraqi Christians have tapped a well-known television actor to star in ads written in the Assyrian language.

But the campaign season has been hampered by Iraq's ongoing bloodshed, including the drive-by shootings of four workers putting up campaign posters Saturday afternoon, the first known attack of the political season. One person was killed in the shootings, police said, while the others were injured.

A wave of violence marred the run-up to Iraq's Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, with more insurgent attacks launched on the day of the vote than any other since the 2003 toppling of the Sunni-led government of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi and U.S. officials hope that widespread participation of the nation's rebellious Sunni Arab minority in the upcoming vote might staunch the violence. But insurgents have been relentless.

A suicide car bomber rammed a crowd of people Saturday at a gas station near the mostly Sunni Arab city of Samarra, killing at least five Iraqis and injuring 16. Another car bomb in Baghdad's upscale Qadasiya district injured four civilians. Insurgents killed a U.S. Army soldier during combat operations Friday in western Iraq, the military announced.

In Iraq's south, sectarian bloodshed continued with the reported killing of a Sunni cleric after his abduction by men suspected of belonging to Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated security forces. The body of the cleric, a member of the Sunni Muslims Scholars Association, was found near the English cemetery in the city of Basra on Saturday afternoon.