Vehicle ban to combat Iraq unrest

BBC | March 3 2006

The Iraqi authorities have announced a daytime ban on vehicles in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Friday in response to the latest upsurge in violence.

The ban follows another day of attacks across the country, in which at least 30 people were killed.

In the most deadly incident, at least nine security forces members died in an attack on a checkpoint near Tikrit.

At least 400 people have died since 22 February, when one of Iraq's holiest Shia shrines at Samarra was bombed.

Death squad claims

A senior UN official has blamed an "endemic" breakdown of security for the increasing bloodshed.

John Pace, until recently UN human rights chief in Iraq, told the BBC News website that 75% of the hundreds of bodies that arrived at the Baghdad mortuary each month showed signs of torture or execution.

Last month, an investigation was launched into claims by the US military that an Iraqi interior ministry "death squad" has been targeting Sunni Arab Iraqis.

The curfew will come into force when the overnight curfew ends at 0600 (0300 GMT) and remain in place until 1600, according to a statement issued by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari office.

The statement said Mr Jaafari had come to the decision "because of the sensitive security situation our beloved country is passing through".

Police have been ordered to seize any private vehicles that defy the ban.

A similar daytime curfew was introduced last Friday in an effort to curb the sectarian violence.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Jaafari cancelled a meeting with senior political leaders, apparently to protest against a campaign to oust him.

Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders are unhappy with Mr Jaafari, and have said they will not join a national unity government with him at its head.

It is the latest crisis to hit attempts to form a new government.

In other developments:

US forces say they have detained 61 militants linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near Falluja

Members of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, take over a key defence role in Baghdad's Sadr City after a minibus bomb there kills at least five people

Gunmen fire on the car of one of the leaders of Iraq's main Sunni Arab alliance, Sheikh Adnan al-Dulaimi, killing a bodyguard

At least four people are killed and 11 wounded when a bomb explodes at a vegetable market in Zafaraniya, south-east Baghdad.
Government under fire

Iraqi political leaders are coming under concerted pressure from world leaders, who believe the failure to form a new government is partly responsible for fuelling the violence.

Mr Jaafari had called the meeting to discuss ways to resolve disagreements and to counter the recent upsurge in sectarian bloodshed.

But the meeting was cancelled without the government giving a reason.

Mr Jaafari has been widely criticised for poor performance in government.

He has also come under fire for appointing Shia politicians to the main ministries in his government, and for allegedly not intervening to stop the interior ministry from operating secret death squads targeting Sunni Arabs.

But last month the United Iraqi Alliance, which won 128 out of 275 seats in December's parliamentary elections, voted to nominate Mr Jaafari for the premiership.

He beat his nearest rival, Adel Abdel Mahdi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, by just one vote, largely due to the support of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

The Kurdistan Alliance made it clear they opposed the UIA's choice, but they did not stop talks on forming a coalition government.

Mr Jaafari has called for the formation of a national unity government encompassing all of Iraq's ethnic, religious and political groups.

Last modified March 3, 2006