Curfew helps stem Iraq violence

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An emergency curfew for Friday's Muslim day of prayer helped quell sectarian violence that has killed some 200 people around Baghdad, keeping much of the Iraqi capital deserted as leaders work to avert civil war.

In a critical test for the Shi'ite-led government and its U.S.-trained forces after two days of killings between Sunnis and Shi'ites, police and Iraqi soldiers were deployed in force, turning back motorists unaware of the ban announced overnight.

But in the sprawling Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, the streets teemed with people who defied the curfew after radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his Mehdi Army militia to attend Friday prayers but banned attacks on Sunni Muslims.

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