[Al Arabiya Latest] Early voting in Iraq's general election was overshadowed Thursday by two suicide bombings at polling stations that killed seven soldiers and a mortar attack that claimed the lives of seven civilians.The blasts, which also wounded 48 people, including 25 Iraqi soldiers, came despite a massive security operation, with troops, prisoners and the sick casting their ballots in special voting ahead of Sunday's parliamentary ballot.
The violence came despite heightened security measures and after the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened to disrupt the election by "military means."
Suicide bombings
The first suicide bomber blew himself up at a school being used as a polling centre in the upscale west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansur at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT). Three soldiers were killed and 15 were wounded.
In the second attack around 45 minutes later, a bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in another school turned polling station in Baab al-Muadham, in the center of the Iraqi capital, killing four soldiers and wounding 10.
Earlier, seven people, four of them children, were killed and 23 wounded in an attack near a polling station that will be used in Sunday's election, a medical official said.
Election organizers expect around 800,000 people, who will not be able to go to polling stations on Sunday, to take part in the early voting session.