BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraq had a rare moment out of the world spotlight in the past week, eclipsed by the tsunami devastation in Southeast Asia. But the country saw a host of critically important political developments and deadly attacks that could cripple elections set for Jan. 30, and that suggest the insurgents are refining their strategy to wreck the vote.

On Monday, insurgents tried to assassinate Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite leader who is among the candidates for the election, in an apparent bid to exacerbate religious tension. The same day, the leading Sunni Arab party withdrew from the race, dealing perhaps the heaviest blow so far to the vote’s legitimacy.

Over the rest of the week, guerrillas mounted a campaign of violence that pointed to new tactics: luring police into booby-trapped buildings and targeting an American outpost with squad-sized units and at least three nearly simultaneous car bombs.

Despite U.S. claims that insurgents are growing desperate, their attacks continued to exact a high toll – dozens of Iraqis and at least four American servicemen were killed. How the events of the last week will play out is far from clear, but it showed the insurgents were more willing to make their voices heard politically as well as through violence.

“Democracy is a Greek word meaning the rule of the people, which means that the people do what they see fit,” said a statement released Thursday by three Sunni-dominated militant groups condemning the vote. “This concept is considered apostasy and defies the belief in one God – Muslims’ doctrine.”

That comment came three days after the release of an audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden. The voice on the tape said the Iraqi vote is being held under an interim constitution “imposed by the American occupation” and is “infidel” because it didn’t rely solely on Islamic law.

The statements appear to be part of the insurgents’ bid to widen the divide with Iraq’s majority Shiites, whose leaders have said it is every Muslim’s duty to vote. Shiites comprise an estimated 60 percent of the 26 million population, compared to the Sunni Arabs’ 20 percent. If the vote goes forward, the Shiites are expected to take power, which the Sunnis have held since before the establishment of the modern Iraqi state after World War I.

But a vote that doesn’t see widespread Sunni participation could render the new national assembly illegitimate. Those fears grew on Monday when the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Islamic Party announced it was withdrawing.

“We believe when a house is on fire, you should first put out the fire before working on decorating and arranging it,” party Secretary General Tarek al-Hashemi said, calling for a postponement of the ballot.

Even Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations suggested the election could be delayed by two or three weeks. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Samir al-Sumaidie proposed that idea and a host of others, including reserving some seats for groups who do poorly if their supporters don’t vote – a clear reference to the Sunnis.

President Bush, however, reiterated his determination to see the vote go forward.

“The stakes are clear in this upcoming election,” Bush told reporters at his Texas ranch on Wednesday. “It’s the difference between the ability for individuals to express themselves and the willingness of an individual to try to impose his dark vision on the world, on the people of Iraq and elsewhere. It’s very important that these elections proceed.”

The insurgents continued with the violence meant to shake Iraqis’ faith in the homegrown police who will bear most of the burden of protecting the vote. The bombing that targeted al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, killed 15 people, though he wasn’t hurt. Jordanian terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militant group, al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility.

On Tuesday, near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, gunmen attacked a police station, overwhelmed 12 Iraqi policemen there, slit their throats and then blew up the building.

Then they experimented with new tactics. Tuesday night, they lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout, then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18. Seven police were among the dead.

The next day, in the northern city of Mosul, insurgents launched a highly coordinated assault against a U.S. outpost, moving in squads of 10-12 and setting at least three roadside bombs against the Americans, U.S. military spokesman Paul Hastings said.

The attack was a tactical failure – 25 insurgents were killed and one American solider died – but showed a level of planning that had not previously been seen. A militant group called the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which was among the three groups that released the statement condemning the elections, said it organized the attack.

U.S. officials portrayed the violence in Mosul as an act of desperation with time running out to derail the vote – and not a sign that the insurgents were gaining strength or tactical skill.

“I would say it does seem like there’s a higher level of coordination here,” Hastings said. “The terrorists are growing more desperate in their attempts to derail the elections and they’re trying to put it all on the line and give it all they can.”

Expressing his continued frustration over the insurgency Friday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi warned Iraq’s neighbors to crack down on insurgents infiltrating from their territory, saying that Iraq’s patience was wearing thin.

“Some countries are hosting people who are involved in harming the Iraqi people,” Allawi told Baghdad’s Al-Iraqiya television station, without naming any nations. “Harming Iraq and its people is not allowed.”

Iraq and the United States have both complained about Syria and Iran purportedly allowing militants to cross their borders and go into Iraq – allegations the countries have denied.

But the insurgents were not finished. On Saturday, they released a tape that showed masked gunmen with al-Zarqawi’s group shooting and killing five captured Iraqi national guardsmen in broad daylight in Ramadi as passers-by watched from 50 yards away.

Less than a week earlier, on Dec. 26, masked gunmen had assassinated a high-ranking Iraqi police officer, Col. Yassin Ibrahim Jawad, and wounded his two bodyguards, police in Baghdad said.

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