Back to Story - Help Bomb kills 10 north of Baghdad By Omar al-Ibadi and Haider Salahaddin Fri Jun 23, 3:45 PM ET
Shi'ite militias clashed with Iraqi and U.S. forces in Baghdad on Friday and 10 worshippers died in a bomb blast outside a Sunni mosque in the village where a U.S. air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi this month. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki slapped a sudden curfew on the capital after the clashes broke out there but lifted the ban on vehicles and people hours later. In Iraq's second city of Basra, a car bomb killed at least five people at a petrol station, hospital sources said. Earlier, police said 10 had died in the blast, which came despite a state of emergency declared last month to end militia violence. Basra's governor said only two people were killed. Politicians in the south have contested hospital death tolls in the past. Underscoring the challenges Maliki faces in easing violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war, militias loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr exchanged fire with gunmen in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Haifa Street. Iraqi and U.S. forces who rushed to the area became involved in the fighting, police sources said. A Reuters cameraman saw militiamen from Sadr's Mehdi Army running across the street 200 meters (yards) from a U.S. Humvee. Sadr, whose followers are members of the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, has staged two revolts against U.S. and Iraqi troops. As mortar bombs crashed and gunfire crackled in central Baghdad, Maliki, who took office last month, imposed a curfew banning people and cars from the streets from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m. on Saturday. It was lifted two hours after it was declared, Maliki's office said. State television quoted Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed, operations chief at the Defense Ministry, as saying the curfew was a response to the fighting. Three Iraqi policemen and five Iraqi army soldiers were wounded. The violence later subsided. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military, which launched a sweep last year to root out rebels in Haifa Street. The bomb outside the mosque went off in Hibhib, north of Baghdad, where Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed on June 7. PRISONERS FREED The U.S. military released about 500 prisoners from the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad under an Iraqi government "national reconciliation" drive to free a total of 2,500 inmates. Most prisoners have been held without charges and are members of the Sunni minority, which forms the backbone of Iraq's insurgency. Maliki, who has pledged "maximum force" against rebels but has also reached out to Sunnis to draw them into the U.S.-backed political process, will present a national reconciliation bill to parliament on Sunday, government officials have said. In one of the strongest allegations yet by a U.S. official of Iranian interference in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tehran was providing weapons, roadside bomb technology and training to Shi'ite extremist groups across the south. General George Casey told a Pentagon briefing on Thursday there had been "a noticeable increase" in Iranian interference in Iraq since January. Maliki, whose Shi'ite Alliance coalition won December elections, has pledged to rein in the powerful militias, which are tied to political parties. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat, the military said, bringing the number of Americans to die in three years in Iraq to at least 2,516. Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
