Fallout from the Baghdad Total Curfew

First, locking every everyone in their homes did reduce violence.

Second, the political fallout from the connections to Sunni leader Dulaimi is beginning. Parliament cancelled its session for today, and the Shia's are calling for a "reshuffle" of the ministries. "If you do not reshuffle the government, the situation will only get worse," (a Sadr deputy) said. "We demand a reshuffle, especially in the security dossier."

Here's a different version of what might have been going on from a Qatari paper. (Baquoba, the political center of Diyala has seen a vast increase in violence over the last month.)

Iraqi military forces have defeated what they called an attempt to create a breakaway Sunni religious territory in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, an army spokesman said yesterday.

"We foiled an attempt to establish an emirate in Diyala," .......

"Inside the Al Aqsa mosque we found leaflets calling for the forcible displacement of Shi’ites and promoting sectarian strife," Kaabi said, adding that they also found explosives tucked inside a coffin hidden in the mosque.

And, I found this a weird, maybe unrelated data point. On Friday morning US time, just as the raid on Dulaimi was being conducted, well before the curfew announcement,

US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday discussed the security situation in Iraq and efforts to pacify Baghdad, the White House said.

"The president reiterated his commitment to the prime minister and the democratically elected government of Iraq. The prime minister expressed his confidence in the president and his relationship with the United States," said Bush spokesman Tony Snow.

This may have been in response to all the criticism of Maliki recently, but what an odd thing to do and with such coincidental timing.

I think there's alot more behind this than we know.