BAGHDAD -- Iraq remains on course to hold landmark elections in January, but violence could force authorities to exclude hot spots such as the western city of Fallujah from voting, a top U.S. general said here Sunday.
Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, operations chief of more than 150,000 mostly U.S. troops here, said in an interview that anti-American militancy in places such as Fallujah would not derail the national elections. A contingency plan, Metz said, is to bypass Fallujah -- and perhaps other violent enclaves -- and concentrate on ensuring electoral security in Baghdad and other population centers where hostility is lower.
"We'd have elections before we let one place like Fallujah stop (national) elections," said Metz, the No. 2 U.S. military official here. "The rest of the country can go on about a process that heads right for an election."
Still, Metz cautioned that the participation of Iraq's three largest cities -- Baghdad, Mosul in the north and Basra in the south -- was essential to any election.
Metz's statements are among the strongest to date by U.S. or Iraqi officials conceding that the security situation is so perilous that some areas may not be pacified in time for elections. While bypassing some cities could allow officials to stick to their planned January timetable, doing so could detract from the election's credibility, foment discontent in Iraq and leave other countries reluctant to acknowledge any government chosen in the vote.
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