12月19日，伊拉克圣城纳杰夫和卡尔巴拉分别发生两起汽车炸弹袭击事件，共造成60多人死亡，130余人受伤。外电报道如下：Car bombs tore through a Najaf funeral procession and Karbala's main bus station Sunday, killing¹ at least 60 people and wounding more than 120 in the two Shiite holy cities. In Baghdad, gunmen launched a bold ambush², executing three election officials, in their campaign to disrupt next month's parliamentary ballot³.

The deadly strikes highlighted the apparent ability of the insurgents⁴ to launch attacks almost at will, despite confident assessments⁵ by U.S. military commanders that they had regained⁶ the initiative after last month's campaign against militants⁷ in Fallujah.

In the Baghdad attack, dozens of guerrillas - unmasked and apparently⁸ unafraid to show their faces - ran rampant⁹ over Haifa Street, a main downtown thoroughfare. They dragged the three election workers from a car, lay them on the street in the middle of morning traffic and shot them point-blank.

At will表示“随意，任意地，恰在希望的时候”，例如：the ability to go anywhere at will and to transform oneself or any object at will（随心所欲地到达任何地方、改变自身或任何物体的能力）。