Iraq holds first polls since US pullout

Iraqis voted yesterday in the country's first polls since US troops departed, a key test of its stability in the face of a spike in attacks that has claimed more than 100 lives.
But the credibility of the provincial elections has come into question, with attacks on candidates leaving 14 dead and a third of Iraq's provinces -- all of them mainly Sunni Arab or Kurdish -- not even voting due to security concerns and political disputes.
The elections for provincial councils, responsible for naming governors who lead local reconstruction, administration and finances, are seen as a key gauge of parties' popularity ahead of general elections next year.
Voters were searched before being allowed to enter polling stations, and soldiers and police set up numerous new checkpoints in Baghdad.
Nine mortar rounds, one roadside bomb and three stun grenades, all outside Baghdad, left a civilian and a policeman wounded, officials said.
The elections, which come a decade after US-led forces ousted now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, are the first since parliamentary polls in March 2010 and also the first since US troops withdrew in December 2011.