Baghdad anniversary clampdown fails to stop violence

By Ahmed Rasheed and Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least a dozen people were killed in Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, despite vehicle bans aimed at preventing unrest from spreading on the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Police said six people died in clashes overnight, and an explosion in the morning hit a funeral in the slum, killing six more and wounding 14 people.

Dr Qasim al-Mudalla told Reuters 11 bodies and 54 wounded had been brought to the Imam Ali hospital he manages in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr since Sunday. The dead included four children and two women, he said.

"What are they doing? The floor of the hospital is covered with the blood of children. What is the world doing? They have seen the blood of our children and are doing nothing," he said.

Other parts of Baghdad were quiet, with streets clear of traffic because of a one-day vehicle ban in the capital for the anniversary. Shops, government offices, schools and universities were shut as a result. Residents were allowed out only on foot.

Sadr had called a mass demonstration against the United States for the anniversary, but postponed it saying he feared for his followers' safety.

Many Iraqis spoke bitterly about the anniversary of the day U.S. troops rolled into the capital, deposing Saddam Hussein.

Retired army officer Salim Hussein said the past five years had yielded nothing but "blood, bombs, curfews and in-fighting".