2/10/2005 12:20:00 PM GMT
In an apparent bid to boost security in the war-torn country, the Iraqi government announced on Thursday it will close the country’s borders for five days starting next week.
All of Iraq’s borders will be closed during the period between Feb. 17 and Feb. 22, the interim government said on Thursday.
However the government didn’t state its reasons for the closure, but the dates coincide with an important Shiite religious ceremony, Ashura, attacked last year in Baghdad and Kerbala by several bombings that killed at least 171.
In an attempt to curb the increasing rebel attacks in Iraq, the interim government imposed emergency laws since November, allowing it to slap on curfews, close borders and detain suspects without having to follow normal legal procedures.
Drivers trying to cross Iraq’s border with Syria, Iran and Jordan say that many border crossings are already shut.
Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated by remote control rocked central Baghdad square on Thursday, killing at least two Iraqis and wounding two others, the U.S. Army said.
The car exploded in Tahrir Square, a crowded commercial area in the heart of the Iraqi capital, shortly after an American military convoy passed.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. James Hutton confirmed that there were no U.S. casualties from the attack.
In Baqouba, a gunbattles broke out between a group of armed men and Iraqi forces, when gunmen opened fire at a police patrol. An Iraqi civilian was killed and two police officers were wounded, a security official said.
Also Thursday, a group of armed men shot dead a police lieutenant in Baqouba's industrial neighborhood, an official said.
In West of Baghdad, five bodies in Iraqi National Guard uniforms were found in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. City residents reported that the men were among 13 Guardsmen who went missing recently, Ala al Ani, director of the hospital said.
In Mosul, U.S. occupation forces stormed the house of Brig. Mutaz Qaqa, a high-ranking Iraqi National Guard officer and detained four of his security guards, an Iraqi Guard officer said on condition of anonymity, adding that Qaqa was not in the house at the time of the attack.
The U.S. military didn’t comment on the raid.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb blew up shortly after a U.S. military patrol passed, killing one civilian, the Iraqi police said.
Since the Jan. 30 national elections in Iraq, rebels stepped up their attacks, targeting the country’s security forces, with the aim of undermining public confidence in the country’s police and soldiers.