One-day curfew imposed on Baghdad

Baghdad: Iraqi authorities have imposed a one-day curfew on Baghdad on Tuesday, an official in the Baghdad operations command for Iraqi security forces said.

The official said cars and motorcycles would be banned from the streets of the Iraqi capital between 5am and midnight (0200-2100 GMT) on Wednesday.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to US forces, and followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr had announced mass anti-American demonstrations.

But Al Sadr called off the planned protest earlier yesterday for security reasons.

Al Sadr's Mehdi Army militia has been clashing with US and Iraqi forces in Sadr City, a vast eastern Baghdad slum, for the past three days after fighting late last month in Baghdad and the Shiite south.

Al Sadr later threatened to lift a seven-month-old ceasefire imposed on his Mehdi Army militia if the Iraqi government fails to protect the public or set a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led forces.

The statement was released by his office hours before the top two US officials in Iraq - Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker - were to brief Congress on the situation in Iraq and prospects for drawing down American troops. "I call on the Iraqi government, if it exists, to work for the protection of the Iraqi people, stop the bloodshed and the abuse of its honour," he said.

The demands were made yesterday as US and Iraqi troops stepped up their pressure on Mehdi Army militiamen in their strong-hold of Sadr City.

Using typical rhetoric to refer to US forces, he said the government should "protect the Iraqi people from the boobytraps and American militias" and "demand the withdrawal of the occupier or a schedule for its withdrawal from our holy land."