On the day of the bombing an indefinite curfew was placed on Samarra by the Iraqi police. Samarra's streets were emptied by mid-afternoon after the arrival of more police and American troops. The Baghdad curfew had originally been set to expire on Saturday 16 June 2007, In
Iskandariyah, south of the capital, two Sunni mosques were bombed (one being demolished the other losing its minaret) Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki upon learning of events in Basra placed the city under indefinite curfew, and arrested a number of Iraqi security forces from there. There were also reports that within the capital, in the New Baghdad neighborhood, a local Shiite mosque loudspeaker issued calls to
Mahdi Army guerrillas and blamed U.S. troops for the attack. While five bodies were found in Baghdad on Thursday the 14th, "presumed victims of sectarian death squads", the curfew was credited with causing a reduction in killing as the usual number is five times that. The worst violence reported on Thursday in Baghdad was the seven mortar rounds fired against the
Green Zone which killed three civilians.
Protests in Iraq On Thursday 14 June 2007, hundreds of people marched in non-violent demonstrations in the Baghdad neighborhood of
Sadr City, and in the Shiite dominated cities of
Kut,
Diwaniyah,
Najaf and
Basra.
Lifting of the Baghdad curfew At the lifting of the Baghdad curfew the U.S. military reported it had captured 20 suspected insurgents and killed 14 others in separate operations over the weekend. It was noted that the curfew was lifted a day after Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno admitted that security forces have full control of only 40 percent of the capital, which is now in the fifth month of the
Iraq War troop surge of 2007. When the Baghdad curfew was lifted at 5 am (0100 GMT) on Sunday, 17 June, residents traveling on the streets were caught in a huge traffic jam "spawned by hundreds of new police and army checkpoints". The ban on vehicle traffic had also led to a lack of delivery trucks moving within the city causing steep price hikes in everything from fuel to fresh food. There were also increased power outages as the large number of people confined to their homes increased electrical usage, resulting in power for only four hours of the day. The lines for gasoline to run vehicles and generators "stretched for a mile or longer, in some cases weaving around several blocks, stretching from main roads deep into side streets. Black marketeers, some of them boys as young as 10, positioned their jerry cans of gas near the lines, charging three times the pump price." Accusations of
price gouging were made by many citizens. "Vendors weaved between cars waiting in traffic, selling paper fans, soft drinks and tissues to mop brows dripping in temperatures that hit 112." While police commandos on "pickup trucks mounted with machine guns" speed through the streets "with sirens blaring and headlights flashing", they did follow government orders "to stop shooting in the air to clear traffic or warn motorists coming too close." As several bridges to the Sunni-dominated Karkh area and the Shiite majority Rusafa neighborhood have been targeted in the recent past, security was especially stiff on bridges where Iraq forces searching for truck bombs. In some areas, like Karkh, where al-Queda is believed to be active police and military checkpoints were just 100 yards apart or less. In often-targeted neighborhoods, like Mansour and Yarmouk, Iraqi soldiers were present behind concrete blast barriers. In the Sunni-dominated neighborhoods within the Azamiyah area in northern Baghdad, which are known for insurgent activity, "Iraqi troops in combat gear patrolled the streets in armored cars. Soviet-era tanks were stationed on major roads and intersections. Much of Azamiyah was almost deserted, with most stores shuttered and little traffic on the streets." By contrast the Shiite dominated enclave of Kasrah within that same area "was buzzing with shoppers in open-air markets. Kebab stands were doing a big business." Drastic differences were evident throughout Baghdad from one neighborhood to the next. For while in Karkh there were "stores shuttered and barbed wire or tree trunks blocking access to residential side roads. Row after row of houses seem abandoned and, in some parts, snipers fired randomly at pedestrians and cars", by contrast the streets of the heavily Shiite Karradah district in central Baghdad were crowded with shoppers and everything "appeared back to normal". While the government ordered higher security around the mosques of Baghdad a lack of increased security was reported around the major Sunni mosque al-Nidaa in northern Baghdad. Nor was there any noticed increase in security around Abdul-Qader al-Jilani mosque, which is "one of Iraq's holiest Sunni sites and the target of a recent bombing ... [and is] located in a small Sunni quarter surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods where the Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the sectarian violence, is active." Thirty-seven bodies slain by sectarian violence were reported in Baghdad on the day of the lifting of the curfew. Two days after the curfew was lifted the
Al-Khilani Mosque bombing took place in Baghdad.
Relaxing of Samarra curfew The 24-hour curfew in Samarra was relaxed on Saturday, 16 June but movement was restricted from 8 pm until 7 am on the afternoon of Monday 18 June 2007 four people were slain in the city when a suicide bomber drove his explosive laden car into a school being used to house police officers. ==International reaction==