Curfew extended as Baghdad violence mounts

[Barrett808]

Curfew extended as Baghdad violence mounts
By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad on Friday in an apparent effort to prevent violence after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.

State television announced that a four-hour traffic ban in force every Friday of late to curb car bomb attacks on mosques during weekly prayers would be extended through most of the day.

A gun and grenade attack on a market just outside Baghdad on Monday and a suicide car bombing to the south of the capital killed 120 people this week. U.S. data showed attacks on security forces in Baghdad has averaged 34 a day over several days, compared to an average of 24 in recent months.

Baghdad morgue alone has taken in 1,000 bodies this month.

U.S. commanders are speaking about a looming fight to the finish in the capital between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's two-month-old unity government and Sunni Arab rebels with links to al Qaeda and ousted president Saddam Hussein.

(more)

http://www.topix.net/content/reuters/3279260176169781103118028474192844435948

Operation Forward Together is in the house!

[rodeodance]

1. and we have had 3-4 soldiers killed this week.

[saigon68]

2. FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH

Baghdad morgue alone has taken in 1,000 bodies this month.

[rodeodance]

3. Mosques bombed, tense Baghdad under (daytime) curfew (Reuters)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC119287.htm

Mosques bombed, tense Baghdad under curfew
21 Jul 2006 14:44:09 GMT
Source: Reuters


By Ahmed Rasheed and Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, July 21 (Reuters) - Bombs killed two worshippers at mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.

On the eve of a high-profile meeting intended to demonstrate reconciliation among sectarian and ethnic factions ahead of a White House visit by the prime minister, senior leaders admitted to despair about the chances of averting all-out civil war.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official told Reuters -- anonymously because the coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to a U.S.-sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," the official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.........

[liberal N proud]

4. You mean there is still a war in Iraq?

Listening to the MSM you would think the only war going on is in Lebanon.

[rodeodance]

5. .U.S. commanders see a looming fight to the finish in .......

......U.S. commanders see a looming fight to the finish in Baghdad between the two-month-old unity government and Sunni Arab rebels with links to al Qaeda and ousted president Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. ambassador has warned that a greater threat may be the mounting sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

That has brought a risk that millions of ordinary but almost universally armed Iraqis may be dragged into all-out civil war.

U.S., Iraqi and international leaders have sounded alarms this week as new data showed tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in fear of death squads and that some 6,000 civilians may have been killed in just two months.