Iraqi forces isolate capital over violent protests

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi security forces cut off the main roads leading to the Iraqi capital Baghdad as well as neighborhoods inside the city as part of intensive security measures after two days of violent protests in the city and in Iraq’s central and southern provinces, security sources said on Thursday.

An Interior Ministry source anonymously told Xinhua that Baghdad has been isolated completely from the other Iraqi provinces since the curfew declared by the government came into effect at dawn on Thursday.

Mohammed al-Bazi, a police source from Salahudin province, told Xinhua that the security forces blocked two checkpoints on the main road that links the Iraqi northern provinces to Baghdad, leaving hundreds of vehicles trying to enter Baghdad to line up to about 10 km outside the checkpoints.

Only the vehicles of the security members, who were heading to their work, were allowed to pass the checkpoints, al-Bazi said. The isolation of Baghdad came after the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, declared curfew in the Iraqi capital Baghdad starting from 5:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) Thursday morning, and until further notice.