Hide Article Text (OCR)
The Associated PressIraqi civilians rush home, past plumes of black smoke rising from Haifa street, before a hastily-announced 2 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew took hold in Baghdad, Iraq Friday. The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency in Baghdad Friday, following clashes which broke out in Haifa street in central Baghdad.its scope and intensity, prompting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toBy KIM GAMELAssociated Press WriterBAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s government clamped a state of emergency on Baghdad and ordered everyone off the streets Friday after U.S. and Iraqi forces battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles near the heavily fortified Green Zone.The military also announced the deaths of five more U.S. troops in a particularly violent week for American forces that included the discovery of the brutalized bodies of two soldiers. Twelve U.S. servicemem-bers have died or been found dead this week.The fierce fighting in the heart of Baghdad came despite a crackdown launched 10 days ago that put tens of thousands of U.S.-backed Iraqi troops on the streets as the new prime minister sought to restore a modicum of safety for the capital’s 6 million people.Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed with heavily armed attackers throughout the morning Friday in the alleys and doorways along Haifa Street and within earshot of the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies and Iraqi government headquarters.Four Iraqi soldiers and threepolicemen were wounded before the area was sealed and searched house-to-house for insurgent attackers, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Raz-zaq said. U.S. and Iraqi forces also engaged in firefights with insurgents in the dangerous Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.Deadly clashes are not new to Haifa Street, a thoroughfare so dangerous that a sign at one Green Zone exit checkpoint warns drivers against using the street. But Friday’s fighting was unusual inorder everyone off all streets in the capital with just two hours notice and while Friday prayers were still in progress.Clusters of women shrouded in black head-to-toe robes scurried along to beat the ban, and U.S. soldiers frisked men also dashing home against a backdrop of thick, black smoke rising above the white high-rise buildings of Haifa Street.Helicopters flitted back and forth overhead.Haifa Street was the scene of some of the heaviest resistance when U.S. forces swept into Baghdad in March 2003, and it has remained difficult to control because many residents have natural links to the Sunni-led insurgency. It is lined with tall and relatively new buildings put up by former leader Saddam Hussein to house Syrian refugees loyal to him and members of his security forces.Defense Ministry official Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohamed Jassim initially said all Baghdad residents must be off the streets from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday, but al-Maliki later declared the ban would end just three hours after it began.The state of emergency, whichwas to continue for an indefinite period, included a renewed prohibition on carrying weapons and gave Iraqi security forces broader arrest powers, Jassim said.“The state of emergency and curfew came in the wake of today’s clashes to let the army work freely to chase militants and to avoid casualties among civilians,” he said. “They will punish all those who have weapons with them and they can shoot them if they feel that they are danger.
Newspaper Details
The Free Press
Kinston, North Carolina, US
Sat, Jun 24, 2006
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Guest G.
USA 20 Jan 2019
Other Publications Near Kinston, North Carolina
The Free Press
