Iraq declares state of emergency

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Iraq declares state of emergency


Violence in Iraq has escalated sharply in recent days
Iraq's government has declared a 60-day state of emergency in response to the escalation of violence by militants.
Official spokesman Thaer Naqib said the emergency would cover the whole of Iraq except Kurdish-run areas in the north.

He said the move came in response to mass killings and destruction of the country's infrastructure carried out by "criminals and terrorists".

He said the violence was part of a plot to derail the interim Iraq government's progress towards January's elections.



In the latest violence, Iraqi insurgents stormed a police station in the western province of al-Anbar, disarmed 21 officers and shot them dead.

Fighting at the Haditha police station, 200km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, lasted about 90 minutes, sources say, as the building was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

In other violence on Sunday:


Another six policemen were shot dead in a similar attack in the neighbouring town of Haqlaniya

Two British soldiers from the Black Watch battle group stationed at Camp Dogwood, 20 miles (32km) from Baghdad, were seriously injured in a suicide attack

Three Iraqi officials from Diyala province were killed on their way to the funeral of a colleague

One US soldier was killed and four others wounded in a car bomb attack in western Baghdad, the US military said

Another car bomb went off in Baghdad outside the house of Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. The minister was not at home at the time, but one of his guards was killed.

On Saturday, more than 30 people were killed in another rebel stronghold, Samarra, which US forces only recently declared they had regained control of.

Curfew

It is not clear at this stage what the state of emergency will mean in practice.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is due to give full details on Monday........



Prime Minister has power* to:
Impose a curfew for a short, defined period in areas facing serious security threats
Restrict the freedom of movement, assembly and use of weapons by Iraqis or foreigners suspected of crimes
Cordon off and search an area if its inhabitants are suspected of possessing weapons
Freeze the assets of those accused of insurgency
*Under the National Safety Law passed in July