Baghdad is only just getting over Eid al-Adha, the holiday on Monday that marked the end of the haj. But with just three days to go before Iraq's elections, the city seems to be shutting down again.
'I can't even go to work,' said one man as he stood in front of a US armoured personnel carrier blocking a road leading to a polling station.
He won't be venturing onto the streets come Sunday.
'I would vote if I could vote from my bed,' he said.
Some people are leaving town, others are stockpiling fuel. Offices are closing. Guerillas are circulating leaflets threatening to kill anyone who comes within 500 metres of polling stations. They have already begun attacking some of the nearly 6,000 buildings - most of them schools - that are to be used for voting.
One guerilla says the election staff of more than 120,000 has been infiltrated.
The Ministry of Health has doubled the number of hospital beds in Baghdad.