Baghdad under curfew over suspected plot

A preventative move
Speaking on Al-Arabiya TV on Saturday morning, Interior Ministry official Hussein Ali Kemal said the move was to “prevent the security situation from deteriorating.”

“That was done due to intelligence information that indicates the intentions of the terrorists to commit terrorist acts against civilians, therefore it is a measure for maintaining the safety and security of the people,” he said.

He added, however, that the information was that there was a threat that an attack “might occur against places of worship and shopping centers during Ramadan.”

On Saturday, U.S. Embassy in Baghdad spokesman Lou Fintor declined to comment on reports that American officials have warned Iraqi leaders that they might have to curtail aid to the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry because of human rights violations.

According to The New York Times, the focus centers on allegations of abuse and torture at an Interior Ministry prison in Baghdad known as Site 4.

More Saddam trial violence
The curfew also came shortly after a relative of the new presiding judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial was shot and killed in Baghdad, an attack condemned by the country’s top prosecutor as an attempt to force the trial to be moved out of Iraq.

Prosecutor General Jaafar al-Mousawi said the attack on a car carrying the judge’s brother-in-law and nephew, the latest in a string of violence linked to proceedings against the former Iraqi leader, would not stop the court from moving ahead. During Saddam’s first trial, three defense lawyers were killed, and a fourth fled the country in fear for his life.

It was unclear whether Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa’s relatives were targeted because of his role in the trial, or if the shooting was just another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.

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