Baghdad daytime curfew ends, but fears remain [View All]

[shugah]

Baghdad daytime curfew ends, but fears remain
Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:57 AM ET13

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities on Monday lifted a curfew in Baghdad imposed to halt a sectarian bloodbath caused by the bombing of a Shi'ite holy site, but a mortar attack that killed four people kept fears of civil war alive.

As traffic returned and shopkeepers removed padlocks to open for business, the city waited to see whether the three-day daylight curfew had ended Iraq's gravest postwar crisis.

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"We are happy. It seems this crisis created by fanatic infidels has ended," said Ali Jabr, who owns a small store in central Baghdad's Tahrir Square, which had been closed off to traders who flock there every day from outlying cities.

Tensions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs had led Iraqi leaders, still trying to form a government after a December 15 poll, to voice civil war fears for the first time.

The daytime curfew may have bottled up sectarian rage but not all was calm at the weekend. Mortar fire killed 15 people and shooting erupted around two Baghdad mosques on Sunday.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-27T125747Z_01_MAC231520_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&archived=False