Street fights in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – Insurgents battled US troops and Iraqi security forces in central Baghdad yesterday as the interim government signed into effect a new security law giving itself wider powers to combat militants.

Machinegun fire and grenade explosions echoed through Haifa Street on the west bank of the Tigris river during the clashes. The normally busy commercial thoroughfare was deserted and US soldiers sealed off roads leading to the area as a US helicopter circled overhead.”We are in a situation of engagement with who we believe to be foreign fighters,” said one American soldier turning vehicles away.There was no immediate word on casualties.US forces have often clashed with Shi’ite guerrillas in the slums of the Sadr City suburb, but daylight street battles have rarely erupted in the heart of Baghdad.Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi signed the new security law that gives his government wider powers to combat insurgents and foreign Islamist militants, a source in his office said.Before the street clashes began, several mortar rounds hit Baghdad, wounding eight people, police and hospital staff said.Several were hurt when two rounds struck a medical centre near the office of Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord party in the western district of Mansour.Another round landed in a residential street in the southern Dora district.The US military had no immediate comment on the blasts, but said guerrillas had killed four US marines in the Sunni Muslim heartlands west of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.The Pentagon says 646 US servicemen have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war last year.Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari has said the new security law empowers the government to impose curfews, set up checkpoints and search and detain suspects.The measures will be temporary and will apply only in parts of Iraq.Allawi’s office said ministers would explain details of the National Safety Law later yesterday.The widely anticipated law had been delayed several times as the government, which formally took over sovereignty from the US-led occupation on June 28, ironed out the details and consulted with US officials, political sources said.Allawi’s government has said it also plans to restore the death penalty, suspended during the US-led occupation, and offer a temporary amnesty for rebels who fought the Americans.A suicide car bombing that killed six people in the town of Khalis, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday broke a relative lull in violence since the June 28 handover.- Nampa-ReutersThe normally busy commercial thoroughfare was deserted and US soldiers sealed off roads leading to the area as a US helicopter circled overhead.”We are in a situation of engagement with who we believe to be foreign fighters,” said one American soldier turning vehicles away.There was no immediate word on casualties.US forces have often clashed with Shi’ite guerrillas in the slums of the Sadr City suburb, but daylight street battles have rarely erupted in the heart of Baghdad.Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi signed the new security law that gives his government wider powers to combat insurgents and foreign Islamist militants, a source in his office said.Before the street clashes began, several mortar rounds hit Baghdad, wounding eight people, police and hospital staff said.Several were hurt when two rounds struck a medical centre near the office of Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord party in the western district of Mansour.Another round landed in a residential street in the southern Dora district.The US military had no immediate comment on the blasts, but said guerrillas had killed four US marines in the Sunni Muslim heartlands west of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.The Pentagon says 646 US servicemen have been killed in action in Iraq since the start of the war last year.Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari has said the new security law empowers the government to impose curfews, set up checkpoints and search and detain suspects.The measures will be temporary and will apply only in parts of Iraq.Allawi’s office said ministers would explain details of the National Safety Law later yesterday.The widely anticipated law had been delayed several times as the government, which formally took over sovereignty from the US-led occupation on June 28, ironed out the details and consulted with US officials, political sources said.Allawi’s government has said it also plans to restore the death penalty, suspended during the US-led occupation, and offer a temporary amnesty for rebels who fought the Americans.A suicide car bombing that killed six people in the town of Khalis, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday broke a relative lull in violence since the June 28 handover.- Nampa-Reuters