A surge in sectarian killings since February has been marked by dozens
of corpses being found nearly every day dumped in the streets of
Baghdad, bound, tortured and shot. Many are victims of tit-for-tat
communal fighting.
One senior US military official said this week police had allowed
death squads to re-enter areas already cleared by US forces in a
seven-week-old crackdown in the capital.
Washington's ambassador to Iraq threatened to cut off funding for the
Iraqi police if the Government failed to punish police officials for
torture and human rights violations.
Zalmay Khalilzad told the New York Times that US officials were
reviewing programmes under a law that bans US funding for armies and
police forces that violate human rights.
.
Herald -Sun (Au)
Curfew lifted after terror arrest
From correspondents in Baghdad
October 01, 2006
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,20507511-5005961,00.html
A NERVOUS normality returned to Iraq's capital today after US troops
arrested a top politician's bodyguard suspected of a plot to bomb the
heavily fortified Government compound.
A 24-hour curfew was lifted at 6am (12pm AEDT) and traffic converged on
central Baghdad's busy streets as shops and businesses re-opened for the
start of the full working week.
Though there is a daily overnight curfew and cars are banned during
weekly prayers on Fridays, Saturday's blanket ban on all movement, even
on foot, was unusually severe and disrupted the social life normally
associated with the holy month of Ramadan.
Just west of Baghdad, in the minority Sunni stronghold of Falluja, a car
bomb killed four people and wounded six in a busy vegetable market,
police said.
On Friday, US troops arrested a security guard at the home of the leader
of the main Sunni Arab political bloc, Adnan al-Dulaimi. They said the
man planned suicide attacks in the Government's "Green Zone" and may
have had links to al Qaeda.
"The detained individual is suspected of involvement in the planning of
a multi-vehicle suicide operation inside Baghdad's International Zone,"
the military said on Saturday.
A senior official in the Accordance Front named the arrested man as
Khudhar Farhan and said he was in his mid-20s and had joined Dulaimi's
security staff about a month ago. Dulaimi leads the Front, the largest
Sunni bloc in parliament.
US officials fear an increase in violence during Ramadan.
Suicide bombings were at an all-time high during the first week.
There was no official explanation for the curfew which emptied streets
on Saturday but a political source said it was linked to security in the
Green Zone that had been compromised. Another senior official said
Baghdad feared large-scale unrest.
The 5-square km riverside compound once occupied by Saddam Hussein is
home to thousands of people, including most senior officials, parliament
and the US and British embassies.
In March, Iraq jailed several defence officials accused of a plot to
infiltrate hundreds of al Qaeda fighters into the Zone's security force.
A surge in sectarian killings since February has been marked by dozens
of corpses being found nearly every day dumped in the streets of
Baghdad, bound, tortured and shot. Many are victims of tit-for-tat
communal fighting.
One senior US military official said this week police had allowed death
squads to re-enter areas already cleared by US forces in a
seven-week-old crackdown in the capital.
Washington's ambassador to Iraq threatened to cut off funding for the
Iraqi police if the Government failed to punish police officials for
torture and human rights violations.
Zalmay Khalilzad told the New York Times that US officials were
reviewing programmes under a law that bans US funding for armies and
police forces that violate human rights.
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