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Curfew ordered after al-Zarqawi killed

Produce is scattered at the site where a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad marketplace Thursday.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi police imposed a curfew Friday in Baghdad and in the Diyala province, where bombs from U.S. warplanes Thursday killed the most-wanted man in Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said.

The curfew was to be in place from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. (0700-1100 GMT).

After terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death was announced Thursday, bombs erupted around the turbulent nation, killing 37 people and wounding 82.

Also Thursday, Zuhair Mohammed Kashmula, the brother of Nineveh provincial Governor Duraid Mohammad Kashmula, was killed in a drive-by shooting as he left a mosque after evening prayers, police and hospital officials said.

Interior Ministry officials said they expect more violence from al Qaeda in Iraq in the wake of al-Zarqawi's death.

Vehicles will not be allowed to enter or leave the Diyala province during the curfew, and in Baghdad, the Iraqi government is increasing security forces and adding more checkpoints.

The last curfew in the city was during the Iraqi election December 15. It was enforced for the entire day.

Though Friday's curfew is only four hours, the hours are significant because Iraqis will not be allowed to visit mosques for noon prayer.

Baghdad violence

At least 37 Iraqis died in Baghdad bombings Thursday, casting a shadow on the announcement that the U.S.-led coalition had killed al-Zarqawi and that the Iraqi Parliament had ended a stalemate by finally naming key ministers.

A car bomb in a commercial area north of Baghdad killed 10 Iraqi civilians and wounded seven Thursday, an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

The bomb exploded at 8:50 p.m. (12:50 p.m. ET) in Shaab, a neighborhood of both Shiites and Sunnis.

Less than an hour earlier, another car bomb exploded in a crowded market southeast of Baghdad, killing five Iraqi civilians and injuring 13, a Baghdad police official said.

The two latest bombings pushed the number of wounded to 82.

Earlier, at 6:20 p.m., a bomb exploded in the Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad, killing seven and wounding 26, according to local emergency officials.

The explosion was in a busy shopping square in a Shiite neighborhood close to a bus station and a Shiite shrine.

At 10:30 a.m., 13 people were killed and 28 were wounded in a roadside bombing at a crowded market in southeastern Baghdad's Jadida neighborhood, a police official said.

Another roadside bomb 30 minutes earlier in the same neighborhood targeted an Iraqi police patrol. Two civilians were killed and eight police were wounded in that incident, authorities said.

Terror leader dies, political leaders named

In a significant announcement Thursday, U.S. and Iraqi authorities revealed that al-Zarqawi had been killed in a coalition airstrike Wednesday evening. (Full story)

The 3-year-old insurgency has "lost its leader," Gen. George Casey, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, told reporters. (Watch how al-Zarqawi's body was identified -- 2:28)

The Iraqi Parliament also approved the prime minister's nominations for three key security posts in the new Cabinet, ending a stalemate among politicians. (Full story)

On Wednesday, the Iraqi government had started releasing 592 detainees under an initiative by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to foster national reconciliation.

They were the first group of 2,500 detainees to be released. The program is designed to placate Sunni factions and counter sectarian strife.

Released inmates dropped off at a bus station in Baghdad kissed the ground and sat down and cheered, The Associated Press reported. One man used crutches for support.

"I was arrested from my home on December 19, 2004, so I was accused of kidnapping people working for Iraqna mobile [telephone] company," one released prisoner, Mohammed Jassim, told AP.

Many of those in prison -- estimated at more than 28,000 -- are believed to be held on suspicion of involvement in a Sunni-Arab rebellion against the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led government, according to Reuters.

The prime minister, under intense pressure to end violence, said Tuesday that the prisoner release would free those who had no clear evidence against them or had been detained mistakenly.

The government has said the detainees will have their cases reviewed and will be released over the coming days in batches of about 500, according to AP.

Iraqi officials have said there is an agreement to eventually release up to 14,000 detainees once their cases have been reviewed, the agency reported.

Other developments

Six police officers were among eight people killed in attacks on Wednesday in Baghdad, and five bodies were found slain in Iraq's volatile capital, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

CBS Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, wounded more than a week ago in a Baghdad car bombing, Wednesday headed back to the United States, where she will receive further treatment. Shortly after noon (6 a.m. ET), Dozier and several U.S. soldiers were loaded onto a military transport plane at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where she was being treated. (Full story)

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report

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