1/18/2005 10:30:00 AM GMT
Iraqi government officials announced Tuesday that the country’s borders will be closed and that nighttime curfews will be extended ahead of Jan. 30 elections.
In an attempt to protect Iraqi voters from expected attacks during the country’s elections, internal movement will be restricted, officials added.
Farid Ayar of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Iraq's international borders will be closed from Jan. 29 until Jan. 31, banning all non-official vehicles from using the roads over the same period except for Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia after performing the Hajj.
Iraqi authorities will stop the travelling between provinces and a nighttime curfew will be imposed during the same period, the statement said.
However, the statement did not say whether Baghdad’s International airport would be closed.
Iraqi authorities were forced to take these measures due to the grave security threat from rebels who vowed to disrupt the country’s elections, scheduled for January 30.
Car bomb targeting a Shiite party
As the country’s national election draws near, anti-government rebels stepped up their attacks.
On Tuesday, a man blew up his car outside the headquarter of a leading Shiite political party, killing himself and three other people, witnesses and Iraqi officials said. The blast left several vehicles in flames and spread shredded debris and body parts on the street outside the Party’s.
'A suicide bomber tried to drive into the Jadriyah office of SCIRI', said Haitham al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The attacker told guards at a checkpoint leading to the party's headquarter that he was a member of SCIRI's security staff, and when they refused to let him in, he detonated his bomb-laden car at the guard post.
"SCIRI will not be frightened by such an act," Ridha Jawad said. "SCIRI will continue the march toward building Iraq, establishing justice and holding the elections."
Tuesday car bomb is the second attack on the group's headquarters in less than a month.
Last month, unidentified gunmen detonated a bomb at the house of Abdel Aziz Hakim, the party's leader.
Also on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen killed a Shiite candidate in Baghdad.
Iraqi Archbishop released
A day after he was kidnapped in front of his church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Archbishop Basile Georges was released on Tuesday, a church official said.
"He has been freed and he is on his way home without paying any ransom," said Potris Moshi, an assistant to the church leader.
Casmoussa, 66, is the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be kidnapped in Iraq.
Gunmen kidnapped Casmoussa in front of his church in the northern al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya district of Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, while he was on his way to visit some families from his congregation, a local Christian official said.
It is not clear yet whether the abduction was politically motivated.