Fresh violence in the capital came despite a massive nine-day-old security operation involving 60,000 Iraqi and US personnel dubbed Operation Forward Together.
As the battle raged on Haifa Street, the government imposed a curfew on all vehicle and pedestrian traffic from 2:00 pm (1000 GMT) until 6:00 am (0200 GMT) Saturday.
But as the fighting subsided in the afternoon, state television announced that the extraordinary curfew would be lifted at 5:00 pm (1300 GMT) and reimposed again at 9:00 pm (1700 GMT).
In further Baghdad violence, a Shiite worshipper was killed and three wounded when gunmen ambushed them in the central Al-Fadhel neighbourhood and two guards at the Baratha mosque were wounded when assailants tossed a grenade at their car, an interior ministry official said.
North of the capital, in the village of Hibhib where Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air raid earlier this month, 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when a bomb went off outside a Sunni mosque as worshippers were leaving the main weekly prayers.
The bomb was planted close to the rear door of the mosque as the front gate was closed for security reasons, police said.
In the main southern city of Basra, at least 10 people were killed and 18 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle near a petrol garage, police said.
Just north of the capital, authorities found the bullet-riddled bodies of five government employees abducted two days ago.
Masked gunmen seized more than 60 staff of state-owned factories Wednesday as they were heading home from work in Taji, on Baghdad’s northern outskirts.
Sunni Arabs, who made up nearly half of the hostages, were swiftly released, highlighting the sectarian motivation of the kidnappers.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, gunmen killed two traffic policemen.
The United States’ most senior commander in Iraq, General George Casey, accused arch-foe Iran of encouraging acts of violence by Shiite militiamen.
“Since January, we have seen an upsurge in their support, particularly to the Shiite extremist groups,” Casey told reporters at the Pentagon.
“We are quite confident that the Iranians, through their covert special operations forces, are providing weapons, IED (improvised explosive device) technology and training to Shiite extremist groups in Iraq, the training being conducted in Iran and, in some cases, probably in Lebanon through their surrogates,” he said in allusion to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The US military announced the deaths of two marines and three soldiers bringing its total losses since the March 2003 invasion to 2,512, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
Iraq freed 500 detainees from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, the fifth batch to be freed as part of a national reconciliation plan launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on June 6.
But not all were happy with their release.
“Some mistakes are being committed including the wholesale release of terrorists. We are not pleased with the release of those criminals,” Sheikh Sadreddin al-Kubanji said in his Friday prayer sermon in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
We can’t leave Iraq. If we leave the White House will have nothing to hide behind. Then they’ll end up in jail like their buddies in congress. So your kids must die to keep Cheney and Bush out of prison. That seems fair…to them. They’re fighting for an imperial presidency and a free ride for really rich people. Letting our troops die in Iraq to cover the asses of the rich and powerful is what America is all about, isn’t it?…
