Four people have been killed and 17 injured in Iraq as a result of celebratory gunfire today after the nation's football team won its first Asian Cup championship. Defying authorities, the gunfire resounded across Baghdad as Iraqis welcomed a rare moment of joy that sent revellers pouring into the streets.

Mosques broadcast calls for the shooting to stop, while security forces enforced a vehicle ban in the capital in an effort to prevent a repeat of car bombings that killed dozens celebrating Iraq’s progress to the finals in Asia’s top soccer tournament.

The Iraqi team, known as the Lions of the Two Rivers, beat three-time champions Saudi Arabia 1-0 in its first appearance in the Asian Cup final.

The celebratory gunfire ignored government authorities who had warned people firing weapons into the air illegally would be arrested after seven people were killed in such shooting after previous victories. Iraqi men traditionally fire their guns into the air to celebrate a victory or a special occasion but people often die when the bullets come back to earth. At least four people were killed and 17 wounded, some seriously, by the gunfire today according to initial police reports.

The jubilation over the victorious run of the team has given Iraqis a welcome respite from the daily violence plaguing their nation, with men of all ages cheering and dancing in the streets after the quarterfinals and the semifinals. But extremists seemed just as determined to destroy national pride and unity. On Wednesday, fafter the semi-final against South Korea, two car bombs tore through crowds of revellers in two Baghdad neighbourhoods, killing 50 people.

An Iraqi military official said police had foiled a suicide car bomber today by opening fire as the attacker took aim at a crowd in southwestern Baghdad. The driver was killed but no other casualties were reported.

Soccer fans danced and waved Iraqi flags in the streets in Baghdad and women handed out sweets. People sprayed confetti from cans over the heads of jubilant crowds in the southern city of Basra. Traffic jams clogged the streets in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Many revellers waved both Kurdish and the Iraqi national flags in a show of unity. Amir Mohammed, a Shia originally from southern Iraq, joined his Kurdish friend in the city centre to celebrate. “The soccer team has shown that we are united from the south to the north,” he said.

Iraqi politicians were quick to try to take advantage of the win. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office issued a statement congratulating the team and said each member would receive US$10,000 for their achievements. The Shia leader’s office said earlier that it had planned to send a Cabinet delegation to the game, but that it was not possible to organise a charter flight due to technical issues related to “the flight’s path and overflight permissions by countries through which the plane would have to cross en route to Jakarta.” The statement did not single out any countries or give more details.

Influential Shia politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq who recently returned from Iran after cancer treatment, also welcomed the victory in an audio speech aired on the Forat TV station run by his party.

The vehicle ban, which began at 4 pm local time, about half an hour before the game started is to be lifte at 6am on Monday. The American military said it would position troops as necessary to maintain security nationwide. Vehicle bans also were imposed in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

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