Attacks prompt vehicle ban in Iraqi city

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities ordered a one-day vehicle ban in Baqouba on Friday in response to a series of deadly suicide bombings and other attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq against predominantly Sunni fighters that have allied with the United States.

The U.S. military also stepped up operations against al-Qaida cells and networks in Diyala province, of which Baqouba is the capital.

The U.S. military announced it had killed a local leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Muhammad Khalil Ibrahim, during a Dec. 28 airstrike in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, in an area known as the "Triangle of Death" just south of Baghdad.

Baqouba police chief Brig. Hasan al Obaidi said the ban was imposed because of the "increased violent events during last week." The ban in the city about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad also aimed to protect worshippers going to mosques for Friday prayers. It was to last until late afternoon.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[rodeodance]

1. moats, concrete barriers, barb wire, They live like caged animals for the most part.

[Drum]

2. Iraq is BushCo's war laboratory.

Nothing but failed experiments, with human victims galore.

:(

[Eugene]

3. This has an awfully familiar ring to it.

This didn't work in Baghdad and it's not likely to work in Baqouba either.

Anyhow, isn't the surge supposed to have al-Qaeda on the run with
AQI 75% destroyed and all that?

[Igel]

4. Sounds more like the vehicle bans in Ramadi and Fallujah.

In those cities you get a resident sticker on your car that allows you to come and go through the checkpoints; once you're in the city, it's smooth sailing. No sticker, you park your car at the city limits and hoof it, and also have smooth, albeit slower and dustier, sailing.