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Tuesday, December 31, 2024  
28 Jumada Al-Akhirah 1446  

Baghdad airport reopens as curfew lifted

Baghdad airport reopens as curfew liftedBaghdad airport was reopened on Tuesday two days after it was closed when a round-the-clock curfew was imposed in the Iraqi capital to prevent violence during the announcement of a verdict on Saddam Hussein.
The curfew was also completely lifted from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) Tuesday.
The ban on pedestrian movement was lifted from 4:00 p.m. Monday itself, while the vehicle ban was removed from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) Tuesday.
Life had came to a virtual halt in Baghdad during the curfew with no sign of a pedestrian or a vehicle on the city's streets.
Anticipating a surge in violence during the verdict on Saddam, the Iraqi government had imposed the indefinite curfew from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Sunday.
On Friday authorities had also cancelled all military leave and put the country's armed forces on alert.
Saddam was sentenced to death on Sunday for "wilful killing", part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in ordering the deaths of 148 Shia residents of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a 1982 assassination attempt.
Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, former chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that ordered the Shias executed.
Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more junior, figure was cleared.
The deposed dictator is to appear in the court again Tuesday to face charges of genocide for the 1988 killings of thousands of Kurdish villagers in the country's north.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006