Iraq Photos

Iraqi Muslims and Christians light candles at a Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Dec. 25, 2009. A handful of Iraqi Christians and Shiite Muslims scuffled Friday over holiday decorations in a northern Iraqi town during their coinciding religious observances, officials said. Iraqi troops were deployed and a brief curfew was imposed in the town after three guards at a Christian church were injured during the dispute - reflecting government concerns about keeping the peace during Christmas and Ashoura, a revered Shiite annual mourning period. Friday's confrontation in Bartela, 240 miles (390 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, comes as thousands of Christians in Iraq tamped down celebrations to avoid offending Shiites, who are making pilgrimages to the southern holy city of Karbala to commemorate the 7th Century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein.