AMARA, Iraq, 24 October 2006 — The Iraqi army declared a curfew in the streets of the southern city of Amara yesterday amid mounting tension just days after clashes erupted between police and Shiite militia.

“These are precautionary measures to prevent tension in the city,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al-Askari. “The curfew was imposed upon agreement between the prime minister and the defense minister.”

As he spoke militia supporters were gathering near one of the offices of Moqtada Al-Sadr’s political movement in Amara and denouncing the death of one of their leaders, allegedly in police custody.

In Baghdad, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, issued a stern warning to the militias, particularly those in Amara’s Meysan Province, “to refrain from any armed action that violates security.”

“The Iraqi government calls on the people of Meysan in particular to be wary of attempts to make our united people fight each other... Let all know that the government will deal firmly with those that disrespect the law,” he warned.

Nevertheless, tempers were rising once again in Amara, where Sadr supporters accused the police of torturing and murdering Hussein Al-Bahdli, the brother of Mahdi Army commander Fadhel Al-Bahdl. He was detained last week on suspicion of murdering a senior police intelligence officer with ties to another Shiite political party.

The arrest triggered two days of violence in which at least 24 people were killed and Mahdi Army fighters burned down two police stations, forcing the army to send reinforcements into the city.

A British military spokesman described the situation in Amara as “very tense” and added that a 600-strong British battle group was on standby in case the 3,000 Iraqi troops in the city need assistance.

The battle for Baghdad claimed five more American lives, the US military confirmed yesterday. The five were killed on Sunday, three in gun attacks and the other two by roadside booby-traps

The US military said a sixth soldier was killed Saturday in western Iraq, bringing the number killed this month to 86.

In addition, an American police officer on contract to the military to train Iraqi officers was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb.

With one week to go, October remains on course to become the bloodiest month for the US military in Iraq since November 2004, when Marines were engaged in a fierce battle in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Deadly bomb attacks ripped through Baghdad’s streets yesterday as Iraqis marked the end of the bloodiest Ramadan since the US invasion. At least four blasts, including a car bomb on a crowded shopping street in eastern Baghdad, killed at least eight people and injured more than 20.

As night fell, flashes of fireworks mingled with the familiar crack of automatic weapons and the glow of decoy flares from American choppers.

As Iraq’s Sunnis began to celebrate the Eid Al-Fitr — the Shiite majority was to follow suit today — tensions were mounting around the country following several bloody incidents.

North of Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers carried out raids to free 25 mainly Shiite police recruits who were kidnapped by insurgents the previous night in an ambush that left another 17 trainees dead, the army said. Forty suspects were detained, including the alleged kidnappers.

Fearing new attacks, Sunni residents of the Iraqi capital largely shunned public celebrations of the Eid.

Despite an increased police and army presence on the streets, many said they would rather stay home than risk falling victim to car bombs or death squads. “We are telephoning friends and relatives or sending text messages to wish them a happy holiday,” said Nadhim Aziz, a math teacher from the city’s mixed district of New Baghdad.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, in London for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, urged the West yesterday not to give way to defeatism or panic as Washington and London face growing calls to change their Iraq strategy.