Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Heavy vehicles banned from Baghdad bridges
Security
(Reuters) - The Iraqi military has banned heavy vehicles from crossing most of Baghdad's bridges, a senior military official said on Wednesday, a measure apparently aimed at halting insurgents from blowing up the city's bridges. Last month, a truck bomb destroyed the famed Sarafiya Bridge, sending several cars crashing into the Tigris. That attack was followed days later by a suicide car bomber, who blew himself up at a ramp leading to another bridge.
U.S. and Iraqi commanders, fearful insurgents are changing tactics to attack Iraq's infrastructure, have increased security in the dozen bridges linking mostly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad with predominantly Sunni western Baghdad.
"We have decided that trucks and pickups that weigh over 1.5 tons are banned from crossing all the bridges (in Baghdad) except the Muthanna and Doura bridges," Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, Iraqi military spokesman for a U.S.-backed security crackdown in the capital, told a news conference. Politicians from both sides of the Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian divide have accused insurgents of trying to split the capital of seven million people along sectarian lines.
U.S. and Iraqi commanders, fearful insurgents are changing tactics to attack Iraq's infrastructure, have increased security in the dozen bridges linking mostly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad with predominantly Sunni western Baghdad.
"We have decided that trucks and pickups that weigh over 1.5 tons are banned from crossing all the bridges (in Baghdad) except the Muthanna and Doura bridges," Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, Iraqi military spokesman for a U.S.-backed security crackdown in the capital, told a news conference. Politicians from both sides of the Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian divide have accused insurgents of trying to split the capital of seven million people along sectarian lines.
RUMOUR HAS IT: The recently bombed Sarafiya bridge over the Tigris, which links the al-Qasra side of Sunni Adhamiyah to Shi'ite al-Altafiyah - residents are adamant: the bomb was planted "by the Americans"; one of them says, "The night before the bombing, the Americans were surrounding the bridge, and right after the bomb exploded, we heard the noise of a jet." If this is true, it would fit a perceived - by a overwhelming majority of Sunnis and Shi'ites alike - American strategy of inciting sectarian war. ENDS.
Labels: bridges, Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, heavy vehicles, Iraqi military
