Sunni Factions Plot Their Return

Along the walls sit more than a dozen mustachioed men with military bearing, several recognizable as former Baathist army and intelligence officers. At a big desk sits their leader. A request for a private interview is waved off -- we have no secrets, he says.

But instead of giving orders for battle as they might have in years past, the men this time are preparing for an altogether different kind of campaign. Most Sunni Arabs boycotted the parliamentary elections in January, but this week they will vote in large numbers, declares Hassan Zeidan, once a senior Baath Party general.

Will that mean an end to the Sunni-driven insurgency, believed to be led by former Baathist officers like the men staring grimly in this room?

No, is the immediate answer. "As long as our country is occupied, the resistance will continue." In other words, Sunni Arabs loyal to the old regime will vote, and they will keep fighting.

Angered by the continued presence of U.S. forces and what they see as unfair dominance of Iraq's military and police by the country's majority Shiites, many Sunnis hope to claim a greater share of political power. But many former Baathists among them see voting as a pragmatic move. It does not necessarily mean they are buying into the new political system, as U.S. officials insist.

On Thursday, Iraqis will choose their first permanent government since the U.S. invasion, putting into practice the constitution approved in October. It will be the third national vote in Iraq in less than a year, and in many ways the most important.

Many Sunnis have had a remarkable change of heart about election participation, although the influential Muslim Scholars Assn. continues to stand aloof from the process and the most radical segments of the insurgency -- die-hard Hussein loyalists and followers of Al Qaeda and Abu Musab Zarqawi -- continue to threaten violence.

U.S. officials have pointed out that 10 million people voted in the constitutional referendum, 2 million more than in the first election of a transitional parliament in January. The White House is counting on an even higher turnout this time, with significant Sunni numbers, as evidence that the U.S.-sponsored transition to democracy is working.