PRIME Minister Iyad Allawi has acknowledged that some parts of Iraq would not be able to take part in this month's election as new attacks killed at least 25 people, six of them in a car bombing in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. "There are some pockets that will not participate in the election but they are not large," Mr Allawi said. The US-backed premier vowed to spend $US2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) this year to bolster the security forces fighting a bloody insurgency in central Iraq that has cost thousands of lives. "When our forces are capable of taking over the war against the insurgents, we will be able to begin discussions with the multinational forces on the Iraq army taking over the lead role in maintaining security in Iraqi towns," he said.Mr Allawi said the insurgency had cost Iraq more than $US10 billion in sabotage against oil and power infrastructure alone. In the latest assaults on Iraq's oil distribution network, two pipelines near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk were set ablaze, officials said. As the clock ticked down to polling day on January 30, sectarian tensions entered the campaign, as the premier's Iraqi National Accord party cried foul over the alleged use of religion by Shiite politicians. The INA lodged a formal complaint against the joint Shiite list, the Unified Iraqi Alliance (UIA), for violating state law by allegedly using religion in its advertising. It also accused Shiite militias of intimidating voters ahead of the poll.
Yesterday's bombing in Tikrit targeted a police station and came a day after Baghdad's deputy police chief was assassinated. All of the casualties were police, the US military said. Militants loyal to Iraq's most wanted man, al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said they carried out the bombing, in an Internet statement. In the Sunni belt immediately south of the capital, dubbed the triangle of death because of the frequency of rebel attacks, three Iraqi civilians were killed and three wounded in a roadside bombing near Yussufiyah, witnesses and a hospital source said. The bombing apparently targeted a US military convoy but the casualties were on a passing minibus.