Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP.

An Iraqi woman walks past a US Marines' vehicle in Falluja on May 23.

The price of gas in Iraq may be climbing, but residents of Falluja have stopped tanking up their cars for another reason: A curfew enforced by US and Iraqi forces has been in place in the city since late May.

A Falluja resident reports to IraqSlogger that the curfew has immoblizied nearly all motor vehicles in the city, including trucks, cars, and motorcycles. Only minibuses have been granted exceptions, which are allowed to operate in order to shuttle people from the transit hub at the city center to other places in Falluja, and to the city’s entrances.

Demand for fuel in the city has dropped, as owners of cars cannot drive them. Only minibus operators and individuals who operate electricity generators are purchasing fuel, the Falluja resident reports.

As automobile traffic is restricted, Falluja residents have turned to bicycles for transportation. “We look just like China,” the eyewitness quipped, referring to China’s emphasis on bicycle transport in earlier periods.

A wedding tradition that involves automobiles has been modified to suit the curfew’s restrictions. In local practice, the wedding party makes a festive caravan of automobiles to deliver the bride to her new husband. Now, this tradition is carried out by minibus, or on foot, the source told Slogger.

Shops in most areas of the city are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., although in Falluja’s al-Shurta area the shops stay open until 9:00 p.m. Fallujans say that Abd al-Sattar Abu Risha, leader of the Anbar Salvation Council had asked for the shops in this area to stay open later, Slogger's source said.

While aid organizations say that the curfew hampers the delivery of relief supplies to the neediest in the city, other residents say they prefer the current situation because it has reduced violent crime and the killing of civilians, Slogger's source reports.

Communications in the city are also restricted, according to the Falluja resident, as militants have targeted the cell phone towers owned by the Iraqna company. According to Slogger’s source, this is the second time that militants have disabled the cell phone network in the city, and the company has not acted to fix the system yet. Only Falluja residents with access to email are able to communicate with the outside world.

The land-based phone network is also mostly disabled, according to Iraq World News. A series of attacks on infrastructure has left most phone lines out of commission, although local communications authorities say that an agreement with the Ministry of Communication will help add new lines to the city and replace damaged equipment.

Combat continues between tribal tribal forces and Sunni militant groups. The tribal forces led by Abd al-Sattar Abu Risha are fighting militants in a village known as Jbeila, located between Falluja and Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. The buzz in the city is that the tribal forces’ campaign will continue pushing eastward into Abu Ghraib, and a battle is expected between the Zubaa tribe in that area and Abu Risha’s Anbar Salvation forces, Slogger's source reports.