Baghdad, Iraq – A Sunni Arab coalition submitted its list of candidates for the December election Friday, signaling the intention of many Sunnis to join the political process despite their failure to block ratification of the new constitution.
In the latest violence, the U.S. command said Friday that five American service members – three soldiers and two Marines – were killed Thursday in separate attacks.
Their deaths raised the number of U.S. troops who have died since the beginning of the war to 2,010, according to an Associated Press count.
An alliance of major Shiite parties, which won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the Jan. 30 election, also met Friday’s deadline and submitted its candidate list to the Independent Election Commission.
Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, submitted his own list.
Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite and former Pentagon insider, was expected to run under his own standard after he was unable to reach an agreement with the Shiite alliance that he joined before the January vote.
Sunni Arab participation in politics is considered a vital step toward calming the Sunni-led insurgency and enabling the United States and its coalition partners to begin drawing down troop levels next year.
Many Sunnis boycotted the January election, enabling majority Shiites and Kurds to dominate both the government and preparation of the new constitution. Many Sunnis opposed the constitution, fearing it will divide the country.
On Tuesday, however, the election commission announced that the charter was approved by nearly 80 percent of the voters in the Oct. 15 referendum. Voters in two Sunni-dominated provinces overwhelmingly rejected the constitution, raising concern that Sunni Arabs might forgo politics in favor of armed resistance.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, is considering demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. and foreign troops after a democratically elected government takes office next year, according to associates of the Iranian-born cleric.
