Curfew on Baghdad and 10 provinces for Ashura

Baghdad, 2008 Jan 16, Al-Manar
 
A curfew will be slapped on Baghdad and 10 Iraqi provinces on Thursday for the three-day Muslim commemoration of Ashura, state television reported on Wednesday.

All traffic will be banned from Thursday night in the southern provinces of Babylon, Basra, Diwaniya, Karbala, Missan, Muthanna, Najaf, Thi-Qar and Wassit, the channel quoted an interior minister statement as saying.
 
The curfew will also apply to Baghdad and Diyala province in the centre-north of the country where many Muslim Shiites live. In the capital, bridges across the River Tigris will also be closed to traffic, the statement quoted interior ministry spokesman General Abdel Karim Khalaf as saying.
 
Police have said tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and police would flood the shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf for Ashura, which marks Islam's holiest days. Up to a million visitors are expected to descend on Karbala in time for the climax of the annual rituals on Saturday. Many travel on foot and in past years have been exposed to attacks by insurgents.