Police: Curfew, door-to-door searches in Fallujah

A curfew was imposed Wednesday in a former insurgent stronghold west of the capital as security forces searched door-to-door after a suicide bomb attack the day before, an Iraqi police official said.

The curfew comes as a wave of violence hit Iraq this week, primarily in Baghdad, and the Interior Ministry, warning of the likelihood of more attacks, said measures were being taken to try to prevent them.

The curfew in Fallujah began at dawn, said the official. Vehicles and pedestrians are banned from the streets while authorities look for anyone connected to Tuesday's suicide car bomb.

The bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing three people and wounding seven others. Fallujah is a traditional Sunni stronghold in Anbar province and the site of some of the fiercest fighting during the war.

The wave of violence that has hit Iraq has primarily targeted Baghdad, shattering a period of relative calm and killing more than 40 in Iraq's capital city.

No group has claimed responsibility for the recent blasts, but the U.S. military said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni extremist group that has targeted Shiite civilians in the past.

The government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein in league with al-Qaida and suggested the blasts were timed for Tuesday's anniversary of the founding of his disbanded Baath party. Thursday is also the sixth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad, which ended Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.

The police official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Terra/AP