The unexpected insurgent uprising on 10 November which led to the disintegration of the 8000-strong police

The unexpected insurgent uprising on 10 November, which led to the disintegration of the 8,000-strong police force, was clearly planned to take advantage of the US assault on Fallujah on 8 November.In the most militant cities there is no sign of insurgent activity diminishing: Every day there are attacks on US and interim government forces in Baiji, Baquba, Ramadi, Samarra and Tal Afar Fallujah itself is far from subdued. Since the beginning of the insurgency, Washington and London have portrayed it as confined to the so-called “Sunni triangle” west and north of Baghdad. The phrase is designed to minimise the extent of the uprising, but in reality there is guerrilla warfare in all the Sunni towns and cities as well as Baghdad.As US generals were issuing triumphant claims of victory in Fallujah, with a population of 300,000, last month they lost control of Mosul, 250 miles to the north, with a population of 1.2 million. President George Bush and Tony Blair genuinely appear to believe that there are only limited trouble spots in Iraq and the rest of the country is at peace. The outcome could simply be a photocopy of the present government.Few votes will be cast in the Sunni cities, towns and villages strung along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers north of Baghdad.

Even if voters did want to go to the polls, it would be extremely dangerous to do so in places where anybody seen co-operating with the US is a target.American and British officials persistently underestimate the extent to which all of Iraq is unstable. Nor is it likely to see a shift in authority from the US to Iraqis. The same applies to news yesterday that judges had begun interrogating him and another top suspect.It is doubtful if the election, at least at first, will mark a real change in the balance of power between the three main communities in Iraq: the Shia, the Sunni and the Kurds. But they could provide no convincing argument that the security situation will be any better in six months. Hoshyar Zebari, the powerful foreign minister, argued that “a delay in holding the election would be taken as a sign of weakness”, and the interim government is doing what it can to manipulate public opinion.Announcements that former members of the Saddam regime will go on trial this week, starting with the notorious “Chemical Ali”, Ali Hassan al-Majid, are seen as electioneering more than anything else. In Sunni districts in Baghdad some shopkeepers, fearing execution by the resistance, had begged their customers not to reveal where they got the forms.There is now little doubt that the elections will go ahead. The Sunni political powers, fearing mass abstention by their constituents, would like a delay.

The venue had been changed at the last minute to baffle potential assassins, and foreign journalists deemed it too dangerous to attend.Shopkeepers distributed registration forms, tucked into the bags of monthly rations on which most Iraqis depend for survival. Two Iraqis were killed in execution-style shootings and four American contractors were wounded by a roadside bomb in other incidents.When Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, announced his slate of candidates for the 275-member National Assembly in Baghdad last week, it was to a small audience of American security guards. Iraqi television shows only the feet of election officials rather than their faces, because they are terrified of their identity being revealed. It will be a poll governed by fear.
Those fears were amply borne out yesterday when insurgents launched attacks on election offices in northern Iraq. Two people were killed and eight wounded when mortars landed on an election office in Dujail, one of many around the country registering and educating potential voters.

In a statement Mr Stinnett said his daughter was a “miracle”. He went on: “I want to thank family, friends and law enforcement officials for their support.”. The Iraqi election on 30 January, for which campaigning began last week, will be one of the most secretive in history. The FBI checked, and was told no birth had been recorded there that day.A report prepared by FBI special agent Craig Arnold said: “After being advised of her constitutional rights, and having waived those rights, Lisa Montgomery thereafter confessed to having strangled Stinnett and removing the foetus.” Mrs Montgomery was last night in custody, having been charged with kidnapping, resulting in death.Meanwhile Victoria Jo was being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Centre in Topeka, where the authorities said she was in good condition. Reports said Mrs Montgomery had actually lost her own child, but had kept this from her husband.When police went to the Montgomerys’ house, Mrs Montgomery claimed the baby had been born at the Topeka Birth and Women’s Centre.

And do look forward to chatting with you.”With the help of private computer security specialists, police were able to identify the dial-up number that “Darlene” used to access the internet. This led them on Friday evening to a house in Melvern, Kansas, where Mrs Montgomery lived with her husband and two children. Her husband, Kevin, apparently believed she was pregnant.Reports said that Mrs Montgomery’s husband told police his wife had called him on Thursday evening to say she had been in a shopping mall in Topeka when she had gone into labour and that she had given birth to a baby girl. He went to collect her and took her home.The reality was quite different. Her mother, who found her, and police who went to the house were confronted by a horrendous scene. Mrs Stinnett’s mother told police it appeared her daughter’s stomach “had exploded”.According to detectives Mrs Stinnett, 23, fought her attacker, who apparently strangled her from behind.