Iraqi Draft Constitution Approved
25 October 2005
Iraqis have approved a new constitution, despite strong opposition from the country's Sunni Arab community.
The Electoral Commission announced Tuesday that 78 percent of voters approved the document, and 21 percent voted against it. Nearly 10 million Iraqis cast ballots in the October 15 referendum.
Sunni Arabs, who had posed the strongest opposition, garnered enough "no" votes to defeat the document in only two - Anbar and Salahaddin - of Iraq's 18 provinces, falling short of the required three provinces.
In other developments, officials say four people were killed in shooting and bomb attacks in Baghdad. And in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, at least 10 people were killed in three bombings targeting a hotel, Kurdish official Mullah Bakhtiyar and the headquarters of the Kurdish peshmerga (armed fighters).
Also, the U.S. military announced Tuesday the deaths Friday of two more Marines, bringing the U.S. combat death toll to nearly 2,000 since the March 2003 invasion.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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