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Sunni Arab Parties Form Coalition Ahead Of December Polls


Iraqis voting in the constitutional referendum earlier this month (epa) 26 October 2005 -- Three Sunni Arab political parties have formed a coalition to run in Iraq's parliamentary elections in December.

The General Conference for the People of Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party, and the Iraqi National Dialogue are urging Sunnis to take part in the polls.

Sunni Arabs -- once dominant under Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein -- largely boycotted January elections that produced a mostly Shi'ite and Kurdish government.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing Hussein say they will boycott the special tribunal trying the ousted Iraqi president until they are given better security.

The decision follows the killing last week of an attorney representing one of Hussein's co-defendants one day after the opening of the trial.

And an Internet statement attributed to Al-Qaeda in Iraq says the militant group has abducted two employees of at the Moroccan Embassy in Baghdad.

(AFP/Reuters/AP)

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