Curfew lifted in Baghdad

Source: Reuters

Iraqis slowly began returning to the streets of Baghdad when a curfew was lifted on Sunday, four days after the bombing of a revered Shi'ite Muslim mosque to the south sparked fears of reprisal sectarian attacks.

But a curfew remained in place in the city of Samarra where the bombing of al-Askari mosque was carried out by suspected al Qaeda militants.

An attack on the same mosque in February 2006, in which its golden dome was destroyed, triggered waves of sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands of people and pushed
Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian civil war.

The curfew in Baghdad largely kept a lid on retaliatory attacks in the capital but a number of Sunni Arab mosques were torched or blown up elsewhere in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17420225.htm

Residents emerge after Baghdad lockdown By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
45 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - Residents emerged from their homes Sunday at the end of a four-day lockdown and found themselves caught in traffic spawned by hundreds of new police and army checkpoints.

Many wondered if the extra security and the curfew imposed after last week's bombing of a major Shiite shrine had only created inconvenience and delayed an inevitable explosion of revenge attacks.

"The militias will still take revenge, today or tomorrow," said agricultural materials merchant Nasser Ali Jaber, a 56-year-old Shiite father of three.

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But the ban on vehicle traffic and large gatherings led to steep price hikes for fuel, and fresh food as well as longer power outages than normal because people were forced to remain home, putting an additional burden on the power grid. Baghdad is routinely off the central grid for as long as 20 hours a day.

Residents complained they had run out of fuel to power generators, and fresh food, and said merchants were price-gouging.

For Mona Abdul-Hussein, a 32-year-old engineering lecturer and mother of two, little came from the lockdown aside from higher food prices and longer power outages.

"I think things will get worse now," she said of a possible outburst in sectarian violence. "Anyone who wanted to do this may have just delayed until after the curfew."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq