Gunmen attack voting center in Iraq’s Diyala, 2 injured

By Ibrahim Saleh

BAGHDAD (AA) - Two Iraqi soldiers were injured Sunday in an attack on a voting center in the eastern Diyala province, according to a local police officer.

Gunmen opened fire on the center in Sa’diyah district, northeast of Diyala, police lieutenant Sha'lan al-Kameli told Anadolu Agency.

Two soldiers were injured in the attack and the gunmen fled the scene unscathed, he said.

No injuries were reported among voters.

The police officer blamed the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group for the attack, for which no group has yet claimed responsibility.

Iraqi voters began to cast their ballots in the country’s early parliamentary elections on Sunday.

The vote sees 3,249 candidates representing 21 coalitions and 109 parties vying for seats in the 329-member parliament.

According to the Iraqi election commission, 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballot in the weekend polls out of the country’s 40 million population.

On Friday, Iraqi security forces displaced Iraqis, and prisoners cast their votes in the parliamentary elections.

The polls were originally scheduled to be held in 2022, but political parties decided to hold early elections following mass protests that erupted in 2019 against deep-seated corruption and poor services.

The Sunday vote is the fifth in Iraq since 2003 when a US-led invasion overthrew the regime of former President Saddam Hussein.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara