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| Curfew to be extended in Baghdad | Curfew to be extended in Baghdad |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Baghdad's military command has extended a round-the clock curfew in the city for an indefinite period. | Baghdad's military command has extended a round-the clock curfew in the city for an indefinite period. |
| It was imposed on Thursday amid clashes between troops and Shia militias in Baghdad and elsewhere, and was to expire at sunrise on Sunday. | |
| The news came hours after radical Shia cleric Moqtadr Sadr said he would defy a government call for his Mehdi Army militia to lay down its weapons. | The news came hours after radical Shia cleric Moqtadr Sadr said he would defy a government call for his Mehdi Army militia to lay down its weapons. |
| Across Iraq, fighting has claimed an estimated 200 lives since Tuesday. | Across Iraq, fighting has claimed an estimated 200 lives since Tuesday. |
| The BBC's Crispin Thorold in Baghdad says the curfew extension will damage the capital economically, as well as inconveniencing residents. | |
| The initial imposition of the curfew was a sign of how badly security in Baghdad had deteriorated, he says. | |
| Air strikes | |
| The decision came after a day of skirmishes between security forces and Shia militiamen in the southern city of Basra, where the current wave of unrest began. | |
| Fierce gun battles were reported, while US warplanes carried out a number of air strikes. | |
| British forces in the city fired on militiamen - the first time they had directly joined the fighting since government forces launched an operation in Basra on Tuesday. | |
| They have been trying to wrest control of the city and other Shia areas from the Mehdi Army. | |
| Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Friday gave the group, which controls large parts of Basra, until 8 April to lay down their arms in return for cash. | |
| He made the offer as an original three-day deadline for them to hand over guns expired. | |
| Haider al-Jabari, a senior Sadr official in the city of Najaf, confirmed there were orders not to surrender arms. | |
| "Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the [US] occupation," he told AFP news agency. |