Iraq Watch: June 23, 2006

State of Emergency Declared in Baghdad

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a state of emergency decree for the greater Baghdad area Friday after firefights erupted outside the heavily fortified Green Zone located in the heart of the capital city.

Fighting began along Haifa Street early Friday morning and pitted U.S. and Iraqi security forces against armed insurgents who dashed in and out of the area's numerous alleyways.

According to AFP skirmishes between militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Sunni guerillas also took place near Haifa Street.

Clashes were also reported in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood.

The impromptu citywide state of emergency declaration issued by al-Maliki sent Baghdad residents scurrying home amidst plumes of thick, black smoke billowing across the city's summer skyline.

In other violence Friday, a bomb – planted in a trash heap – exploded outside a Sunni mosque in the town of Hibhib killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 more. Hibhib, north of Baghdad, is the site where former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike June 7.

South of the capital in Basra, meanwhile, five people were killed and 18 injured when a car bomb detonated near a gas station.

In Latifiyah, located in the volatile "Triangle of Death," two Iraqi policemen were killed after militants ambushed their patrol.

Also Friday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. service members, including two MND-B soldiers who were killed Friday morning in a roadside bomb attack souteast of Baghdad.