As draft compact is distributed, some Iraqis fear reprisals

BAGHDAD -- Residents of one of Baghdad's most insurgent-hit neighborhoods received copies of Iraq's draft constitution yesterday, though some refused to take it and some shopkeepers balked at passing it out, fearing reprisals by militants determined to wreck the crucial Oct. 15 referendum.

Insurgents continued their wave of violence with attacks in and around the capital that killed at least 20 Iraqis and an American soldier.

Despite the bloodshed, Iraqis in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora had their first look at the document they will vote on in nine days, though distribution of the UN-printed blue booklets -- emblazoned ''The constitution is in your hands" -- got off to a slow start elsewhere.

''If we like it, we will vote 'yes.' If we don't, we'll say 'no,' " said Lamia Dhyab, a Shi'ite woman in a head-to-toe veil.

She and other Dora residents got copies yesterday morning along with their monthly government-subsidized rations of rice, soap, cooking oil, and other staples. The constitution is being distributed through the rationing system because some 80 percent of Iraqis have been enrolled in it since the days of UN sanctions against Saddam Hussein.

Hamza al-Baidhani, 60, said the rations distributor he went to refused to pass out the booklets, claiming gunmen threatened to burn his business. ''I wish that the Iraqi forces will be responsible for distributing the copies," he said.

About two dozen boxes of the booklets were found thrown in a Dora garbage dump.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has called for increased attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began this week, and more than 290 people have been killed in attacks the past 11 days, many of them Shi'ites.

In yesterday's deadliest assault, a suicide bomber boarded a minibus packed with 14 passengers -- officers going to the police academy and students and workers headed home to the Shi'ite district of Sadr City.

The bomber, seated by the driver, set off his explosives belt as the bus passed a police patrol. At least nine people were killed and nine wounded, said police Captain Abbas Ali.

The US military warned of more violence but said it was making progress in improving security ahead of the referendum and that two major offensives in the Sunni heartland of western Iraq would help provide a safe atmosphere for the vote.