Baghdad- Cellular phones, which chirped into life in Iraq last week, have been shut down in the capital Baghdad, an American official said on Monday.

Cellular phones, banned under former president Saddam Hussein's authoritatarian rule, began to ring in Baghdad late last Monday as both Bahraini operator Batelco and MTC-Vodafone in Kuwait decided to test the telephonic waters in Iraq.

But the upstart companies angered those waiting for an official tender to be put up by the American coalition provisional authority and they were finally ordered to shut down, the official said.

Both companies finally pulled the plug on their phones on Monday.
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