Night curfew to descend over Baghdad after deadly attacks

BAGHDAD – A total of 16 Americans have been killed in the past two days across Iraq – including three killed in Fallujah combat yesterday, two killed by mortars near the northern city of Mosul and 11 others who died on Monday, most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks in Baghdad and southwest of Fallujah.

The 11 deaths were the highest one-day US toll in more than six months. Iraq’s interim government imposed a night curfew on Baghdad and the surrounding areas yesterday day following the bombings of churches and a city hospital that killed at least 16 people.The measure followed Monday’s decision by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to slap a curfew on Fallujah, where US-led troops continued to battle insurgents for control of the Sunni Muslim bastion.Faced with escalating bloodshed, Allawi declared a state of emergency across most of Iraq on Sunday, giving the government extraordinary security powers.But attacks continued to scar the country, targeting soldiers and civilians, as well as symbols of the government, such as the police and army.Meanwhile, four attackers were killed and 14 people wounded in an ambush on two Iraqi police stations near Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, officials said.In the village of Buhruz, armed men pounded a police station with rocket and gunfire, destroying the building, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.Another police station in the Wahdat area west of Baquba was attacked by between 10 and 15 gunmen.Two police stations to the west of Baghdad were attacked on Sunday, leaving 21 policemen dead.Iraq’s fledgling forces, a prime victim of insurgent attacks, were again targeted when a suicide car bomb exploded at the entrance of a national guard base north of Kirkuk, said the local commander Major General Anwar Hamad Amin.Two construction workers were killed and several other people wounded in the attack, he added.Elsewhere yesterday, Sheikh Kamel Hassan Olayane, a local official who was to run in Iraq’s January elections was gunned down in front of his home in Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said.And a Turkish driver was found dead in his burned out truck on the road between Mosul, northern Iraq and Baiji, police said.He was the second Turkish driver to be killed this week.- Nampa-AFPIraq’s interim government imposed a night curfew on Baghdad and the surrounding areas yesterday day following the bombings of churches and a city hospital that killed at least 16 people.The measure followed Monday’s decision by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to slap a curfew on Fallujah, where US-led troops continued to battle insurgents for control of the Sunni Muslim bastion.Faced with escalating bloodshed, Allawi declared a state of emergency across most of Iraq on Sunday, giving the government extraordinary security powers.But attacks continued to scar the country, targeting soldiers and civilians, as well as symbols of the government, such as the police and army.Meanwhile, four attackers were killed and 14 people wounded in an ambush on two Iraqi police stations near Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, officials said.In the village of Buhruz, armed men pounded a police station with rocket and gunfire, destroying the building, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.Another police station in the Wahdat area west of Baquba was attacked by between 10 and 15 gunmen.Two police stations to the west of Baghdad were attacked on Sunday, leaving 21 policemen dead.Iraq’s fledgling forces, a prime victim of insurgent attacks, were again targeted when a suicide car bomb exploded at the entrance of a national guard base north of Kirkuk, said the local commander Major General Anwar Hamad Amin.Two construction workers were killed and several other people wounded in the attack, he added.Elsewhere yesterday, Sheikh Kamel Hassan Olayane, a local official who was to run in Iraq’s January elections was gunned down in front of his home in Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said.And a Turkish driver was found dead in his burned out truck on the road between Mosul, northern Iraq and Baiji, police said.He was the second Turkish driver to be killed this week.- Nampa-AFP