BAGHDAD UNDER CURFEW AMID CLASHES

BBC
KarabakhOpen
28-03-2008 10:31:07

A curfew has been imposed on Baghdad amid continuing clashes between
Shia militias and Iraqi security forces.

The curfew will last from 2300 (2000 GMT) on Thursday until 0500 on
Sunday to "protect civilians", officials say.

More than 130 people have died since a clampdown on Shia militias
in the southern city of Basra started on Tuesday. Unrest has spread
to Baghdad.

Earlier US President George W Bush praised Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki’s
decision to order the crackdown.

Heavy fighting between the Shia Mehdi Army, led by radical Shia cleric
Moqtada Sadr, has continued in Basra for a third day, with violence
in other parts of southern Iraq.

Late on Thursday, Sadr called for a political solution to the crisis.

In a statement relayed by his aide Hazem al-Aaraji, he said he wants
"everyone to pursue political solutions and peaceful protests and a
stop to the shedding of Iraqi blood".

Mr Maliki earlier vowed that he would continue the fight against the
militias for as long as was necessary.

"We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue
until the end. No retreat," Mr Maliki said in a speech broadcast on
Iraqi state television.

The prime minister has personally overseen the operation in Basra,
which involves some 30,000 troops and police.

But Mehdi Army fighters remain in control of some densely-populated
areas.

Speaking at a US Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio, Mr Bush said
"normalcy" was returning to Iraq.

"As we speak Iraqis are waging a tough battle against militia fighters
and criminals in Basra, many of whom have received arms and training
and funding from Iran," he said.

Mr Maliki’s move against Basra’s militias underlined "his leadership
and his commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner",
the US president added.

Rising violence

He spoke as one of several Americans injured this week in rocket
attacks on Baghdad’s Green Zone died, amid fresh missiles attacks on
the fortified area.

US embassy staff in Baghdad have been told not to leave reinforced
structures, following the attacks.

The state department has instructed embassy personnel to wear helmets
and other protective gear if they leave the building, even if they
stay within the Green Zone.

Meanwhile, one of Iraq’s two main oil export pipelines from Basra
was blown up in a bomb attack, sending oil prices above $107 a barrel.

And Basra’s police chief survived a bomb attack that killed three of
his bodyguards.

With many shops and markets shut, residents in the city said they
were beginning to run out of food and water.

In Baghdad, thousands of Sadr supporters marched to demand Mr Maliki
quit over the Basra operation and there was sporadic fighting in Shia
areas of the capital.

In other developments:

The FBI said it had recovered the bodies of two US security contractors
kidnapped in Iraq in 2006 A prominent Sunni civilian spokesman for
the Baghdad security plan, Tahseen Sheikhly, was kidnapped by gunmen
Dozens died in clashes between the security forces and militias in
the southern city of Kut Clashes have also been reported in the towns
of Hilla and Diwaniya, as well as the Shia holy city of Kerbala The
number of gunfights in southern Iraq appears to be growing, says the
BBC’s Crispin Thorold in Baghdad.

The fighting still seems to be mainly with members of the Mehdi Army,
our correspondent says.

The militia had held to a ceasefire since last August, contributing
to the general fall in violence across Iraq.

The government says it aims to re-impose law and order in Basra,
which the British military handed over to Iraqi forces in December.

However, Moqtada Sadr’s supporters say the government wants to weaken
the militias before local elections in October.

At stake, analysts say, is control of Iraq’s only port city and the
region’s oil fields.