5 U.S. Soldiers Die in Baghdad Attacks

U.S. and Iraqi forces blocked off roads, put up barriers at voting centers and made other final preparations Friday for this weekend’s landmark election, even as insurgents killed five U.S. soldiers in the capital and continued to target polling places.

Great swaths of Baghdad and other cities appeared near- deserted Friday as many people stayed home to keep safe and an earlier curfew went into effect. U.S. jets frequently streaked over the capital late Friday in an apparent show of force.

The interim Iraqi government, meanwhile, said it had captured three more top aides to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, raising hope that the insurgent leader himself might soon be in custody.

“We are getting close to finishing off al-Zarqawi and we will get rid of him,” Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told reporters.

The bold assertion seemed intended, at least in part, to reassure jittery citizens that it would be safe to vote Sunday despite the ongoing violence and threats from insurgents to kill anyone who cast a ballot. More than 14 million of Iraq’s approximately 25 million people are eligible to vote.

President Bush, speaking in Washington at Condoleezza Rice’s ceremonial swearing-in as secretary of State, said Sunday’s election would mark “the advent of democracy in Iraq” and would “serve as a powerful example to reformers throughout the entire Middle East.”

“Sunday’s election is the first step in a process that will allow Iraqis to write and pass a constitution that enshrines self- government and the rule of law,” Bush said.

“On Sunday, the Iraqi people will be joining millions in other parts of the world who now decide their future through free votes.”

In the run-up to the balloting, insurgents have launched a campaign to destroy schools, where most polling places are expected to be situated. U.S. and Iraqi forces were busy Friday putting up concrete barriers and concertina wire near schools destined to be voting places.

In Samarra, a city north of the capital that has been the site of intense fighting, insurgents blew up two more schools, bringing the total struck in the city to four in the last two days.

In Kirkuk, in the Kurdish dominated north, insurgents have attacked at least eight schools in recent days.

Several Samarra residents interviewed Friday blamed coalition forces for designating schools as polling places and then failing to provide adequate protection.

“Where will my children study?” asked Samir Khalil.

Their anger reflects the widespread anti-U.S. hostility in Iraq’s Sunni Muslim Arab heartland, where the insurgency has been the strongest and where many people view the election as another step toward marginalizing their community, which lost influence and power with the defeat of Saddam Hussein.

Shiite Muslims, who are a majority in Iraq, are expected to make a strong showing in the balloting for the 275-seat transitional national assembly.

Many, if not most, voters still don’t know where they are supposed to cast their ballots. The government has decided to keep the locations confidential until the last minute in an effort to minimize the chance of attacks.

U.S. forces and insurgents exchanged fire Friday at several places in the capital, and the military announced the deaths of five more U.S. soldiers, all slain in Baghdad. Three were killed by a single roadside bomb that struck a patrol, a separate bombing killed another soldier, and the fifth was shot.

Late Friday, a U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopter crashed in southwest Baghdad, killing two soldiers who were aboard, the military said.

Officials said they did not believe hostile fire was involved in that incident.

The crash comes two days after a Marine helicopter went down in bad weather in western Iraq, killing 31 troops, the deadliest incident for U.S. forces since the invasion was launched in March 2003. The military is still investigating the cause of the crash.

Today, restrictions barring driving are scheduled to go into effect and the nation’s borders are to be sealed. Baghdad’s international airport is to be closed.

As the curfew cleared streets in the northern city of Mosul, commanders expressed fear that suicide bombers with explosives-laden vests could make it into polling places.

“That’s the big thing we’re worried about -- it’s so hard to defend against,” said Maj. David Spencer, the intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division.

He said there was a “high probability” that female suicide bombers might be deployed, since they may be able to evade searches before entering voting booths.

South of Baghdad, in Najaf, police and security forces deployed throughout the Shiite Muslim holy city, setting up checkpoints and searching cars. At dawn, police cars roamed with loudspeakers, warning residents to stay in their homes as much as possible for the next three days.

Polls show Shiites eager to vote and turnout is expected to be heavy in Najaf.

By mid-afternoon, Najaf’s traffic was a fraction of its normal level. There was no sign of U.S. soldiers, but Iraqi army troops, a rare sight until Friday, had set up independent checkpoints and raced through the city on flatbed trucks equipped with machine guns.

In the Old City around the Imam Ali shrine, pigeons and police officers outnumbered civilians. The normally bustling district’s stores and shops were completely shuttered and few people walked the streets.

“The shopkeepers looked around in the morning, saw there wasn’t anybody around and decided to shut down,” said Aqil Kenaan, puffing on a water pipe outside the Guests of the Prince Hotel.

The emptiness of Najaf was particularly incongruous, since it came at time when the streets would normally be packed with pilgrims. Today marks Eid al Ghadeer, a major Shiite holiday that commemorates the day when, according to Shiite belief, the prophet Muhammad publicly declared his cousin and son-in-law Ali as his successor.

Ali eventually became the fourth caliph, or leader, after Muhammad’s death, and Shiites believe he was denied his blood right. The lingering sense of injustice to Ali is central to the Shiite experience, a feeling sharpened in Iraq by decades of political marginalization at the hands of the Sunni Arab minority.

Although Eid al Ghadeer has been overshadowed this year by pre-election security measures, Sadruddin Qubanchi in his Friday sermon from Najaf’s Grand Fatimid Mosque drew a parallel between the holiday and election day: one symbolic of centuries-old injustice, the other promising a long overdue ascension to rightful power for Iraq’s Shiite majority.

“Tomorrow is the anniversary of the election of Imam Ali, and after tomorrow we’ll elect the parliament,” said Qubanchi, who is a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is fielding candidates in the election.

McDonnell reported from Baghdad and Khalil from Najaf. Times staff writers Edwin Chen in Washington and Louise Roug, traveling with the 82nd Airborne Division in Mosul, contributed to this report, as did special correspondent Said Rifai in Baghdad and other special correspondents in Kirkuk, Samarra and Najaf.