70,000 troops in Baghdad, state of emergency? Remember **May 2005** ????

More than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers are to be deployed in Baghdad in a massive operation to hunt down insurgents, the Iraqi defence minister has announced.

...

Mr Dulaimi said the capital would be split into seven areas of operation, and warned that security measures would be far more strict than had been seen before.

"We will also impose a concrete blockade around Baghdad, like a bracelet around an arm, God willing. No-one will be able to penetrate this blockade," Mr Dulaimi said.

It is also hoped that mobile checkpoints will stop suicide bombers getting to the markets and the busy streets, where many people have been killed.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -
Iraq's government clamped a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone.

...

Defense Ministry official Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohamed Jassim initially said all Baghdad residents must be off the streets from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday, but al-Maliki later declared the ban would end just three hours after it began.

The state of emergency, which was to continue for an indefinite period, included a renewed prohibition on carrying weapons and gave Iraqi security forces broader arrest powers, Jassim said.

...

He declared a similar state of emergency in the increasingly volatile southern city of Basra at the beginning of June. The violence there continues, however.