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| Iraq |
| Security beefed up in Baghdad over attack reports |
| 2010-01-13 |
| [Dawn] Iraqi security forces closed off access to large portions of Baghdad on Tuesday and conducted a vast search operation after receiving information on possible attacks, a military spokesman said. Security forces "have taken preventative security measures as part of a search operation in most of Baghdad's quarters which has blocked traffic," Qassim Atta, spokesman for the city's military command, told AFP. The Iraqi capital was gridlocked with vehicles backed up as several bridges and routes into the city were closed, forcing people to travel on foot as military helicopters circled overhead. A defence ministry official said information had been received that bomb-laden vehicles had been placed in the capital. "The commander of security forces (then) gave the order to stop vehicles entering the capital," the official said. Insurgents, weakened in the past year, have changed tactics in recent months and focused their efforts on high-profile attacks on "hard" targets such as government buildings, rather than so-called soft targets in civilian areas. Co-ordinated vehicle bombings in Baghdad in August, October and December killed nearly 400 people in all. |
| Posted by:Fred |