> International Zone under curfew as attacks continue
> a.. NEW: Senior U.S. official: Insurgents' weapons may have been made
in
> Iran
>
> b.. Two U.S. government officials killed in attacks over two days
>
> c.. Fighting rages on for third day in Basra and other ****ite regions
in
> Iraq
>
> d.. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gives Basra militants till Saturday
to
> surrender
>
> BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's government imposed a weekend curfew in
> Baghdad on Thursday amid clashes between government troops and ****ite
> militia fighters, and U.S. Embassy staff were told to remain indoors
after
> days of rocket attacks left two U.S. government employees dead.
>
> The curfew, which took effect at 11 p.m. Thursday (4 p.m. ET), bans
> pedestrian, motorcycle and vehicle traffic through 5 p.m. Sunday, said
> Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman.
>
> Sixteen rockets were fired Wednesday and 12 on Tuesday. U.S. Embassy
> workers in Iraq were told to remain in secure buildings and wear
> protective clothing as rockets continued to rain down on Baghdad's
> International Zone.
>
> Also called the Green Zone, the International Zone is a heavily
fortified
> central Baghdad district housing the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government
> offices.
>
> A senior U.S. official says the insurgents may have had recent training
> allowing them to conduct more precise targeting of the rockets, believed
> to be made in Iran.
>
> Meanwhile, the name of the U.S. government official killed in the
attacks
> Thursday has not been released, an Embassy spokesman said.
>
> Another U.S. employee, Paul Converse, died Wednesday from wounds he
> sustained Sunday, officials said.
>
> And a U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on
> Thursday, the U.S. military re****ted.
>
> Iraq's parliament called a special session for Friday to address the
> crisis caused by three days of fighting between government troops and
> ****ite fighters. Meanwhile, ****ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for an
> end to attacks on his followers.
>
> Fighting between Iraqi government troops and what officials call rogue
or
> outlaw members of ****ite militias has spread through southern Iraq's
> ****ite heartland to Baghdad since the launch of a government crackdown
in
> Basra on Tuesday.
>
> Three days of fighting have left more than 100 Iraqis dead.
>
> Casualty figures from Basra weren't available Thursday, but the number
of
> deaths is expected to rise from the 40 to 50 re****ted Wednesday.
>
> The fighting threatens to unravel a seven-month cease-fire by al-Sadr's
> Mehdi Army.
>
> Al-Sadr issued a statement Thursday urging "all groups to adopt a
> political situation and peaceful protest and to stop shedding the Iraqi
> blood," according to a senior member of his movement.
>
> Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has been overseeing the operation in
> southern Iraq, has ordered militants to surrender their weapons by
> Saturday.
>
> In Wa****ngton, U.S. State Department official Richard Schmierer said the
> rocket attacks appear to be coming from fighters affiliated with al-Sadr
> who were "trying to make a statement" about the government offensive in
> Basra.
>
> Schmierer, the State Department's director of Iraq affairs, discounted
the
> prospect that the cease-fire was collapsing. He blamed the violence on
> "marginal extremist elements" who have associated themselves with the
> Sadrist movement.
>
> Iraq's Interior Ministry said mortar rounds killed one person and
wounded
> four in the city's central Karrada district on Thursday evening, and the
> ministry's own compound was hit by one shell, wounding seven police
> officers.
>
> Also Thursday in Baghdad, dozens of gunmen kidnapped the spokesman for
the
> Baghdad security plan, Tahseen Sheikhly. Three of his guards were killed
> and his house burned in the attack, which an Interior Ministry official
> said was carried out by "outlaws," a reference to al-Sadr's militia.
>
> A car bomb killed three people and wounded five others near a police
> patrol in central Baghdad on Thursday, an Interior Ministry official
said.
> There are no apparent links to the violence in the ****ite regions.
>
> People in Basra re****t smoke rising and gunfire and explosions ringing
out
> across the city. Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. and British
troops,
> have been taking on fighters using grenades, mortar rounds and machine
> guns.
>
> A Basra provincial official said on condition of anonymity that weapons
> such as machine guns and grenades were stolen from a military post in
the
> Muqal area.
>
> Al-Maliki briefed city and provincial officials Wednesday about the
> offensive and vowed to finish the job.
>
> Provincial officials expressed reservations about the operation, saying
> Basra will fall into the hands of "outlaws" if al-Maliki fails to
restore
> order.
>
> Basra has been relatively quiet during the war, but the southern city
has
> seethed with intra-****ite tensions as Sadrists, the Islamic Supreme
> Council of Iraq and the Fadhila party have jockeyed for power.
>
> Much of the fighting in the ****ite heartland involves followers of
al-Sadr
> and security forces aligned with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq's
> militia, the Badr Brigade.
>
> The council dominates the ruling United Iraqi Alliance, but the Sadrist
> movement left the government last year after al-Maliki refused to demand
a
> timeline for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. Both groups
have
> strong contingents in the Iraqi parliament.
>
> A provincial council official also said insurgents sabotaged an oil
> pipeline Thursday in Zubeir, a town near Basra. The attack sparked a
large
> fire on the pipeline, which transfers crude oil to tanks in the city.
>
> Meanwhile, the FBI identified the remains of two U.S. contractors who
had
> been missing in Iraq for more than a year, a bureau spokesman said
> Thursday.
>
> Minnesotan Paul Johnson-Reuben, 41, and Californian Joshua Munns, 25,
were
> among four men kidnapped in November 2006 during an ambush in the
southern
> Iraqi town of Safwan. All four worked for the Crescent Security Group, a
> Kuwaiti-based firm that escorts convoys.
>
> The other two men -- Jonathon Cote, 25, and Bert Nussbaumer, 26 -- are
> still listed as missing. The FBI has the remains of one more body, which
> the bureau is trying to identify.
>
>
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