IRAQ: Iraqi authorities lifted a curfew in Baghdad, but a mortar attack that killed four people kept fears of civil war alive

Record ID: 418039

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraqi authorities lifted a curfew in Baghdad, but a mortar attack that killed four people kept fears of civil war alive
  • Date: 28th February 2006
  • Summary: (BN10) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 27-2006)(REUTERS) DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OF YARMOUK HOSPITAL HAYDER KHALAF SITTING IN HIS OFFICE, TALKING TO WOMAN (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) HAYDER KHALAF, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF YARMOUK HOSPITAL, SAYING: "The attack (the bombing of the Shi'ite shrine) was unexpected. We, at the Yarmouk Hospital, or Iraqis across the whole country, did not expect that le
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVABENLOZTKT9QI5USUKA3JPX9SM
  • Story Text: Iraqi authorities lifted a curfew in Baghdad imposed to halt a sectarian bloodbath caused by the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine, but a mortar attack that killed four people on Monday (February 27) kept fears of civil war alive.
    As traffic returned and shopkeepers removed padlocks to open for business, the city waited to see whether the three-day daylight curfew had ended Iraq's gravest postwar crisis.
    Iraqis, exhausted after two-and-a-half years of a Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands of people and destroyed their oil-driven economy, say they are relieved that they can get on with their lives.
    "It (the curfew) has affected our work, but it was worth as it helped abort civil strife among the Iraqi people. Thanks God, they put an end to the civil strife," Raid (pronouce Ra-eed), who owns a small store in central Baghdad said as he reopened his shop. A wave of sectarian fury after the Samarra bombing claimed more than 200 lives, mostly in Baghdad, where ethnic and religious communities are intermingled in many districts.
    The sectarian tensions between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority had prompted Iraqi leaders, still struggling to form a government after a December 15 election, to openly express fears of civil war for the first time.
    The three-day curfew, over and above the usual overnight ban on movement, largely dampened violence that erupted after a Shi'ite shrine was destroyed in a bombing that sparked a wave of tit-for-tat killings and led the defence minister to warn of the danger of "endless civil war".
    However, violence continued over the weekend and on Monday.
    Mortar fire killed 15 people in Baghdad on Sunday (February 26), with other reports of shooting around two Baghdad mosques. Elsewhere, five people were killed in a minibus and teenagers were shot dead as they played soccer.
    On Monday, a mortar attack killed four people and wounded 17 in Shola, a Shi'ite district in Sunni-dominated western Baghdad on Monday (February 27), police said.
    ''A mortar was fired and landed in a field near the industry school in Hay al-Jawadeen. A second mortar was fired immediately after the first and landed near the school gate. Innocent people were hurt," Abbas Aliwi described.
    Iraq's defence ministry Saadoun al-Dulaimi said security forces had killed 35 "terrorists" and detained 487 since suspected al Qaeda bombers destroyed the Shi'ite Golden Mosque in Samarra on Wednesday (February 22).
    "I can say that a lot of terrorists, criminals and kidnappers were hugely active between 22nd and 24th February," al-Dulaimi said at a news conference in the green zone.
    In Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead the owner of a glaze shop and an employee and wounded five others.
    Further incidents included the death of two insurgents while they were trying to plant a bomb which exploded prematurely in the main road between Iskandariya and Latifiya, south of Baghdad. And in Riyadh, 60 km (40 miles) south west of Kirkuk, three civilians were killed when a roadside bomb exploded.
    More than 200 people have been killed since Wednesday when the Golden Mosque in Samarra was destroyed last Wednesday (February 22).
    On Friday (February 24), a bomb tore open an oil products and fuel pipeline near the refinery town of Baiji. An oil industry official said at the time that supplies were likely to be disrupted for about three days until repairs could be completed.
    Washington, hoping for stability to enable it to start bringing home the 136,000 U.S. troops now trying to keep order, has been pressing Shi'ite leaders to accept minority Sunnis in a national unity government since the Sunnis took part in U.S.-backed elections in December for the first time.
    The main Sunni bloc announced a boycott of negotiations last week in protest at violence against Sunni mosques. A spokesman for the Accordance Front said it had now sent Iraq's president a list of 24 demands it wanted met before rejoining the talks.
    Tensions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs had led leaders to speak more clearly than ever of the risk of civil war, which would pose the gravest threat to Iraq's survival as a unitary state since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
    The sectarian crisis may be followed by dramatic court room scenes on Tuesday (February 28) if Saddam Hussein returns to his trial, which he had dominated before staging a boycott.
    The former Iraqi leader ended an 11-day hunger strike for "health reasons", said his chief lawyer Khalil Dulaimi, who added the defence counsel may end a boycott of the hearings.
    Saddam staged a hunger strike to protest against his court proceedings which have also been marred by the resignation of the chief judge and the killing of two defence attorneys.
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