Car bombs killed 10 people Saturday in Baghdad and elsewhere in central Iraq, while gunmen opened fire on campaign workers putting up posters in the run-up to next month's parliamentary elections. The violence came two days before Saddam Hussein's trial resumes after a five-week break.U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of an upsurge in insurgent attacks ahead of the Dec. 15 elections, in which voters will choose the first fully constitutional parliament since Saddam Hussein's rule collapsed in April 2003. American authorities are hoping for a big Sunni Arab turnout, a move that could produce a government that would win the trust of the religious community that forms the backbone of the insurgency.
On Saturday, gunmen opened fire on four people as they plastered campaign posters for the biggest Shiite party on walls in western Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three, police said. In Mosul, gunmen fired on members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni Arab political movement, while they were putting up campaign posters, wounding one person, police said.
A statement posted on an Islamist Web in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq also claimed responsibility for killing a Kurdish election volunteer in Mosul. The statement said Miqdad Ahmed Sito, 28, was seized in the city's Shifaa neighborhood.
Al-Qaida has often spoken out against elections, saying that devout Muslims should follow the Muslim holy book Quran as their only formula for governance. Al-Zarqawi repeatedly has threatened Iraqis who participate in elections, regardless of whether they are Muslims.