BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (AFP) - Senior US officials and commanders in Baghdad are bracing for violence on election day, anticipating car bombs, gunfire, mortars and rocket attacks.
"There are places here that are ugly. There are other places looking pretty dog-gone good," Brigadier General Jeffrey Hammond, a deputy commander of US troops in the capital, told reporters Friday.
"Intimidation factor is probably more prevalent in some places than other."
Speaking at an old clubhouse once used by Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard, Hammond said US troops were anticipating a surge in violence in the packed metropolis on January 30, when Iraqis go to the polls for the first time since their former ruler was toppled.
"If I was a bad guy I would certainly not let you have a free ride on election day," he said.
He cautioned there was no guarantees that Iraq's election security plans were foolproof. Under the plan, Iraqi police and army are forming a two-ring cordon around election centres, with cars banned from the circles, but even this is no guarantee of safety.
"A terrorist got into a base camp in Mosul and detonated a bomb and killed American soldiers. An insurgent would probably make every effort to penetrate (the polling stations)," Hammond said.
"This is one of the techniques that this insurgent has in his kit bag. There is no doubt in my mind such efforts are on going on as we speak."
The general acknowledged that Baghdad's police force could be infiltrated by some insurgents on election day.
"Are there indivuals portraying themselves as police working for the insurgency? Probably, it's one of the many concerns. I have to be perfectly honest with you. We are working hard to prepare for ever possible contingency."
Concern has also been raised within the US embassy.
A senior American official told AFP that sections of western and northern Baghdad, including the Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district, would probably have low turnout due to the threat of insurgent reprisals against voters.
In some of those sections of Baghdad, voter registration forms were not even handed out, the official added.
Hammond confirmed the dire mood in some sections of the city, but singled out the central neighborhood of Haifa Street, notorious for the slaying of three election workers in broad daylight last month.
"We continue to fight insurgents in Haifa Street who have 10-year-old kids throwing hand grenades at our soldiers," Hammond said.
But he said US and Iraqi forces were working hard to ensure people would feel safe enough to vote.
"I'm taking the perspective we're going to have an election and we're going maximise the opportunity for the election in Baghdad."
Task Force Baghdad -- which includes about 34,000 US and other foreign troops and military personnel -- has already been boosted by 5,000 soldiers ahead of the elections, according to Hammond.
Police now number 18,000 in the city, along with more than 7,400 Iraqi soldiers.
Hammond said the military was banking on improved intelligence in the run-up to the vote, noting the US Army was now receiving 35 tips per week on a phone hotline.
In late December, Brigadier General Erv Lessel, the US-led military's deputy director of operations, warned insurgents would target polling stations, candidates and electoral workers.
01/14/2005 17:11 GMT - AFP