Iraq bans heavy vehicles on Baghdad bridges

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi military has banned heavy vehicles from crossing most of Baghdad's bridges, a senior military official said on Wednesday, a measure apparently aimed at halting insurgents from blowing up the city's bridges.

Last month, a truck bomb destroyed the famed Sarafiya Bridge, sending several cars crashing into the Tigris. That attack was followed days later by a suicide car bomber, who blew himself up at a ramp leading to another bridge.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders, fearful insurgents are changing tactics to attack Iraq's infrastructure, have increased security in the dozen bridges linking mostly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad with predominantly Sunni western Baghdad.

"We have decided that trucks and pickups that weigh over 1.5 tons are banned from crossing all the bridges (in Baghdad) except the Muthanna and Doura bridges," Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, Iraqi military spokesman for a U.S.-backed security crackdown in the capital, told a news conference.

Politicians from both sides of the Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian divide have accused insurgents of trying to split the capital of seven million people along sectarian lines.