Curfew declared as US prepares to storm Fallujah

The Iraqi government declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country yesterday, as US and Iraqi forces prepared for an expected all-out assault on rebels in Fallujah.

Insurgents escalated a wave of violence that has killed more than 50 people in the past two days.

Heavy explosions were heard in Baghdad as government spokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb announced the state of emergency over the entire country except Kurdish areas in the north.

“It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things, but tomorrow the prime minister will mention it,” he said. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi will give more details today, he said.

Al-Naqeeb declined to say whether the announcement signalled an imminent attack on the insurgent stronghold Fallujah, saying “We have seen the situation is worsening in this area. Any obstacle will be removed.”

Allawi, who called a meeting yesterday with his defence minister, interior minister and provincial police commanders, said the state of emergency is a “very powerful message that we are serious” about reining in insurgents before elections set for late January.

“We want elections to take place. We want to secure the country so elections can be done in a peaceful way and the Iraqi people can participate in the elections freely, without the intimidation by terrorists and by forces who are trying to wreck the political process in Iraq,” he told reporters.

The announcement came as insurgents carried out a second day of assaults in central Iraq, attacking police stations, gunning down government officials and setting off bombs.

Three attacks on US convoys in and around Baghdad killed two American soldiers and wounded five others yesterday, the military said. Residents reported grenades setting police cars aflame on Haifa Street in the heart of the city.

A car bomb also exploded near the Baghdad home of Iraq’s finance minister, Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politician, the Interior Ministry said.

Reda Jawad Taqqi, a spokesman for a major Shiite political party, said that neither Abdel-Mahdi nor any of his family were in his house at the time.

The US military said the bomb killed one Iraqi bystander and wounded another. A US patrol came under small-arms fire as it responded, wounding one soldier, a statement said.

The wave of violence sweeping the troubled Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, may be aimed at relieving pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault if Allawi gives the green light.

At dawn yesterday, armed rebels launched deadly attacks against police stations in western Anbar province, killing 22.