The Iraqi government said Thursday that it will extend a countrywide lockdown it imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic until April 11.

Schools, universities, shopping centres and other large gathering places will remain closed, as will the country's international airports.

Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.

But there are fears the real number is much higher, as only around 2,000 of Iraq's 40 million people have been tested.

A spike in cases could overwhelm the country's dilapidated health system, ravaged by years of conflict and underinvestment.

One of Iraq's first precautionary measures was to close its 1,500-kilometre (940-mile) land border with Iran late last month.

The Islamic republic is one of the world's worst-hit countries, with more than 27,000 confirmed infections and more than 2,000 deaths.

Iraq has since ramped up its measures against the virus, with individual provinces imposing curfews before the government last week announced a countrywide lockdown.

Authorities have struggled to enforce previous curfews.

Last Saturday, tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims turned out in Baghdad and cities across the south to commemorate the death of a revered imam.

The curfew extension was an attempt to dissuade the faithful from turning out in large numbers again on the next Shiite holy day, set for April 8.

Iraq has shuttered Shiite shrines across the country and its top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has urged followers to respect the government's directives.

Two rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone: Iraq military
Baghdad (AFP) March 26, 2020 - Two rockets early Thursday slammed into the Iraqi capital's Green Zone, the high-security enclave home to government buildings and foreign embassies, the military said.

Foreign diplomats and troops based across Iraq have been targeted in similar attacks more than two dozen times since late October, according to an AFP count.

Before dawn on Thursday, two rockets punched into an empty square near an Iraqi security headquarters in the Green Zone, the security forces said.

But an Iraqi security source told AFP the intended target appeared to be the US embassy, a sprawling compound a few hundred metres further south on the banks of the Tigris.

The Green Zone's sirens could be heard going off shortly afterwards.

There were no reports of casualties.

Earlier this month, two US military personnel and a British soldier were killed in a rocket attack on the Taji airbase further north, which was hit again two days later.

The 5,200 US troops stationed across Iraqi bases make up the bulk of the 7,500-strong coalition force deployed to help local forces beat back jihadist remnants.

Those troops are being drawn down this month, partly as an emergency response to the novel coronavirus pandemic and partly as a more permanent repositioning.

British, French, Australian and Czech forces who were in Iraq to coach Iraqi forces were being temporarily sent home as Baghdad had put a hold on training operations.

Trainers amount to a third of the total coalition troops.

But the coalition is also consolidating its forces into a smaller number of bases across Iraq and sending some troops out of the country in the process.

On Thursday, US-led coalition forces will hand over the northern air base of Qayyarah to Iraqi troops, the second such departure this month.

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Czech Republic pulls troops from Iraq over virus
Prague (AFP) March 24, 2020
The Czech military said Tuesday it had pulled 30 soldiers from their missions in Iraq over concerns about security and the spread of the novel coronavirus. "A military Airbus A-319 with 30 Czech army soldiers... from Iraq landed at the Prague-Kbely (military) airport on Tuesday evening," the defence ministry said in a statement. The troops were part of Operation Inherent Resolve or NATO Mission Iraq, as well as chemical training corps and military police. "We are temporarily pulling our sold ... read more