Wasit

A separate police unit led a joint operation with U.S. forces in Wasit province, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, that netted 26 suspected Shiite extremists, the military said.

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Now, Ahmad Abd al-Rida al-Asadi, the head of the Ahdab field project for the North Oil Co., the Iraqi state firm in charge, calls Wasit province "very quiet."

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But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

But Internet penetration is low in Iraq compared with Egypt, especially in impoverished provinces such as Wasit, bordering Iran, where Wednesday's violence occurred.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011

In the latest American deaths, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said Thursday that three U.S. troops were killed a day earlier when a huge rocket known as an IRAM struck a remote desert base just a few miles kilometers from the Iranian border in Iraq's southern Wasit province.

June deadliest month for U.S. troops in 2 years 2011

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has clearly been unsettled by an upsurge of protests around the country in the weeks since the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, declared an indefinite curfew in Wasit and promised an investigation into the actions of the police officers who opened fire.

Violence erupts during anti-government protests in southern Iraq city Liz Sly 2011