Report: Iraq to issue special IDs to Baghdad residents

Above: A woman weeps for her husband as he lies bandaged after a multiple car-bomb attack in central Baghdad today which left at least 12 dead and 19 wounded.

In a bid to reduce sectarian violence, the Iraqi authorities have decided to issue special IDs to Baghdad residents to make it easy to identify militants, a senior military officer said.

"The aim is to easily differentiate between true residents of Baghdad and strangers and militants who come from other provinces to carry out terrorist attacks," Brig Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesman of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, said.

"Nine security centres will be opened in Baghdad soon to issue these IDs, five on the western side and four on the eastern side, and these centres will be run by the US army, Iraqi security forces and local officials in each neighbourhood," al-Mousawi said.

He did not specify when the authorities would issue these new IDs, which would bear a person's full name and address.

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