State of Emergency Declared in Baghdad

The Iraqi government ordered everyone off the streets of the Iraqi capital after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the Green Zone. Dozens of deaths were reported around the country in this one day alone.

AP:

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital. U.S. and Iraqi forces also fought gunmen in the volatile Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.

A car bomb ripped through a market and nearby gas station in the increasingly violent southern city of Basra, killing at least five people and wounding 18, including two policemen, police said.

A bomb also struck a Sunni mosque in Hibhib, northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 15 in the town where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was slain this month, police said.

At least 19 other deaths were reported in Baghdad.

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AP / Assad Muhsin

In this April photo, Iraqis transport a victim of a blast at a Baghdad mosque. Continued explosions have fueled the sectarian violence that led to the June 23 declaration of a state of emergency in the Iraqi capital.