Baghdad quiet under car ban after attacks

IRAQI security forces in bulletproof vests took to the streets in the bloodied capital yesterday to enforce a daytime ban on private vehicles.

They did so in an effort to contain a surge of sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Late on Thursday, gunmen stormed a power station in Baghdad’s suburbs, fighting a gun battle with security guards, police and the army. In a separate attack nearby Shi’ite factory workers, were killed by gunmen while they slept.

Those attacks, in Baghdad’s southeastern suburbs, left 19 dead - raising the toll from Thursday’s violence to 58.

The power station assault began with a series of mortar shells slamming into the Nahrawan facility, according to police.

Half an hour later, dozens of gunmen arrived and set fire to the station. A gun battle with security guards ensued, with the Iraqi police and army sending reinforcements in to help the guards.

At least nine people were killed and three injured in the battle, the dead including guards and technicians at the facility.

In a neighbouring suburb, gunmen killed 10 Shi’ite southerners, employed at a brick factory, while as they slept in their shacks. Police believe the gunmen may have been part of the same group that attacked the power station.

The capital was largely quiet Friday amidst the vehicle ban, with most shops and gas stations shut - but a mortar shell slammed into a Friday market in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, killing one person.

The US military, meanwhile, said it detained 61 suspected insurgents in a series of raids, on Monday, northeast of Fallujah.

Among those apprehended were people believed to be funding and providing logistical support to suicide bombers and foreign fighters for al-Qaida, according to a US military statement.

The government imposed the vehicle ban yesterday in a bid to avert more attacks on the day Muslims congregate in large numbers for the most important prayer service of the week.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari warned preachers not to incite hatred or violence in their sermons, threatening them with “severe measures”.

Armed police and soldiers in bulletproof vests manned checkpoints as they sealed off the city of seven million - preventing most cars and motorcycles from leaving their neighbourhoods.

Militiamen loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also were out in force in the teeming Shi’ite slum known as Sadr City, helping police check cars and patrol the area - a collaboration is likely to raise alarm among Sunni Arabs, who accuse the cleric’s followers of numerous attacks against them in recent days.

US officials have also been pressing for the disbanding of private militias.

Dozens of young boys, meanwhile, turned parts of Baghdad’s usually busy Saadoun Street into improvised soccer fields, meanwhile, looking clearly unhappy when the odd car disrupted their games.

Hundreds have been killed in the violence unleashed by the February 22 bombing of a revered Shi’ite shrine in the central city of Samarra and reprisal attacks.

Sunni Arabs last week walked out of talks aimed at creating a new broad-based coalition, accusing the Shi’ite-led government and security forces of standing by as Sunni mosques were attacked.