Baghdad vehicle ban for religious gathering

An uneasy silence cloaked the streets of Baghdad today at the start of a two-day vehicle ban aimed at preventing attacks during a major Shiite religious gathering. Seven pilgrims hoping to join the rally were shot dead in a Sunni neighbourhood.

The victims were among a group of Shiites who were sprayed with gunfire by assailants driving in a car late yesterday in Adil neighbourhood in western Baghdad, said police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq.

It was an ominous start to the ceremonies today and tomorrow when Shiites will mark the death in 799 AD of Imam Moussa Kadhim, one of the 12 major Shiite saints. The rally, which will reach a climax tomorrow, will take place around the imam’s shrine in Kazimiyah in northern Baghdad.

About 1,000 people died during last year’s commemoration, when rumours of suicide bombers triggered a mass stampede on a bridge across the Tigris River. It was the biggest single day death toll since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

The vehicle ban went into effect last night and was expected to remain until Monday morning. A Cabinet statement said the ban would apply to about 16 neighbourhoods, but later, Brig. Gen.

Qassim al-Musawi, spokesman of the armed forces general command, said the order applied citywide.

Heeding the warning, no cars and very few people were seen on the streets except police and army vehicle patrols. Although residents were allowed to walk to work, most appeared to be staying at home. Two cars that ventured out of a lane into the main road were stopped by police and turned back.

But the area around the shrine in Kazimiyah was bustling with activity. People set up shops selling T-shirts with portraits of Kadhim and cooking vessels were piled up in a stall that planned to distribute food to pilgrims.

A government statement said it was “absolutely forbidden” to carry weapons, cell phones and any type of bags, even plastic ones into the shrine.

The ceremonies are taking place during a major US-Iraqi security operation aimed at curbing Sunni-Shiite violence, which threatens the stability of the new government of national unity.

US commanders are sending nearly 12,000 US and Iraqi reinforcements to take control of this city of 6.5 million people neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

American and Iraqi forces arrested three death squad leaders who were involved in the massacre of 41 Sunnis in Baghdad’s Jihad neighbourhood last month, the US military announced.

The three were arrested yesterday in raids in the Rasheed district of south Baghdad, the statement said. One of the three was believed to have been the overall leader of the July 9 massacre, in which gunmen set up checkpoints, identified Sunnis, hauled them from cars and killed them.

Yesterday, the Iraqi government announced that Jordan’s Ambassador Ahmed al-Lozi presented his credentials to President Jalal Talabani on Thursday.

Jordan is the first Arab state to send a fully accredited ambassador to Iraq, a major display of political support for its US-backed government. Insurgents have warned Muslim countries not to cooperate with the Iraqi government and have kidnapped and slain many Muslim diplomats in the past one year.

Egypt sent an ambassador, Ihab al-Sherif, last year but he was kidnapped in July 2005 and assassinated before presenting his credentials. Two Algerian diplomats were kidnapped in the same month and killed. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for all the kidnappings and killing.

The US has long urged Iraq’s Arab neighbours to upgrade diplomatic relations to the ambassadorial level, rather than maintain missions headed by lesser-ranking diplomats, as an affirmation of support.

But the Arabs had been stalling due to violence as well as concern over the Shiite-led government's dealings with the Sunni minority, which forms the foundation of Iraq’s insurgency, and the government’s ties to Shiite-dominated Iran.