Curfew lifted in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, June 17 (Reuters) Iraqis slowly began returning to the streets of Baghdad when a curfew was lifted today, four days after the bombing of a revered Shi'ite Muslim mosque to the north sparked fears of reprisal sectarian attacks.

But a curfew remained in place in the city of Samarra where the bombing of al-Askari mosque was carried out by suspected al Qaeda militants.

An attack on the same mosque in February 2006, in which its golden dome was destroyed, triggered waves of sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian civil war.

The curfew in Baghdad largely kept a lid on retaliatory attacks in the capital but a number of Sunni Arab mosques were torched or blown up elsewhere in Iraq.

While cars and people returned to Baghdad's usually hectic streets after the curfew was lifted at 5 am (0630 IST) on Sunday, residents said the capital was quieter than normal as some were still fearful of revenge attacks.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates met Iraqi leaders on Saturday to tell them Washington was disappointed with their efforts to reconcile warring factions.

Gates was briefed by US commanders on a US troop build-up intended to buy time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government to reach a political accommodation with Sunni Arabs.

There were few details of Gates' meeting with Maliki and other Iraqi leaders but Gates told reporters travelling with him he would deliver a simple message ''that our troops are buying them time to pursue reconciliation, that frankly we are disappointed with the progress so far''.

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