• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Iraqi Government Extends Baghdad Car Ban

25 February 2006 -- The Iraqi government today announced an extension of its ban on car travel in Baghdad in an effort to contain the sectarian violence that has convulsed the country since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra on 22 February.

The new ban is now set to expire the morning of 27 February.

However, the Interior Ministry said it was lifting the daytime curfew in three provinces surrounding Baghdad.

Violence has meanwhile continued in Iraq. The bodies of 14 police commandos were recovered in Baghdad after overnight clashes in the south of the city.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded at a street market in the southern city of Karbala, killing several people and wounding dozens.

The explosion came shortly after gunmen shot dead 12 farm laborers near the city of Ba'qubah, northeast of Baghdad.

In a separate incident, a bomb attack on the funeral procession in Baghdad of a correspondent for Al-Arabiyah television killed at least two people and wounded several others.

(AP, Reuters, AFP)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org