Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Violence escalates after curfew is lifted
Security
Four people died in early morning attacks on Wednesday as violence returned to Baghdad following the lifting of a curfew that had been imposed during the sentencing of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. A mortar shell landed near the ministry of health, which is controlled by followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, killing three people and wounding five, a security source said. At nearly the same time, a car bomb exploded near the Nida mosque in the northern Sunni stronghold neighbourhood of Adhamiyah, killing one person. The attacks came just hours after a late night suicide bombing of a Shia cafe in north Baghdad Tuesday night that killed 17 people and wounded 20. The explosions mark the first major violence in the capital since the lifting of a two-day curfew imposed during the sentencing on Sunday of Saddam to death for crimes against humanity.
