Iraqi, U.S. Officials Upbeat on Security
Wednesday March 14, 2007 4:01 PM
AP Photo BAG101
By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) - Key U.S. and Iraqi officials on Wednesday issued cautiously
optimistic reports one month into the latest drive to curb sectarian
bloodshed in Baghdad but warned that months would pass before the operation
could be labeled a success.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman, also said the
level of sectarian killings had dropped significantly in the month since the
operation began.
``By the indicators that the government of Iraq has, it has been extremely
positive. But I would caution everybody about patience, about diligence.
This is going to take many months, not weeks, but the indicators are all
very positive right now,'' Caldwell said.
One possible reason for the lowered violence in the capital could be the
continued absence of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who remained in
Iran ``as of 24 hours ago,'' Caldwell said. The anti-American chief of the
Mahdi Army militia was reported to have taken refuge in the neighboring
Shiite theocracy before the security operation.
``He's a very significant part of this political process. We do continue to
track his whereabouts,'' Caldwell said at a briefing to mark the end of the
first month of the security drive.
Al-Sadr's militia was seen as responsible for much of the sectarian
bloodshed, especially the executions and murders of as many as 50 people a
day before the security operation began.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters melted away and have not confronted U.S.
forces as American and Iraqi troops launched the third crackdown on
sectarian violence in the capital in less than a year.
There was great concern the operation would force an all-out showdown with
al-Sadr's forces in their Sadr City stronghold in eastern Baghdad, but that
has not materialized.
While Caldwell's assessment was largely positive, he expressed concern about
a spike last week in the number of what he called ``high-profile'' car
bombings.
``If the high-profile car bombs can be stopped or brought down to a much
lower level, we'll just see an incredible difference in the city overall.
Murders and executions have come down by over 50 percent. ... But the
high-profile car bombs is the one we're really focused on because that's
what will start that whole cycle of violence again,'' he said.
The commander of the Baghdad security plan, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, warned
that all terrorists and outlaws ``will be smashed with the foot of the Iraqi
people'' unless they reconsider their ``position and return to logic before
it's too late.''
Qanbar also sought to reassure the capital's residents that the military is
not discriminating in the crackdown, despite complaints by Sunnis that their
neighborhoods have been unfairly targeted by the Shiite-dominated
government.
He said the effort had made headway.
``We've overcome the terrorist acts, militant groups, criminal gangs,
sectarian killings and displacement,'' he said at a press conference in the
heavily fortified Green Zone.
The U.S. military also has stepped up its presence and plans to have about
20,000 extra American troops sent to Baghdad and surrounding areas by the
end of May.
Suicide bombers struck a market in northern Iraq and an Iraqi military
checkpoint in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people.
In the worst attack, a man detonated his explosives belt in an outdoor
market in Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad.
The blast occurred just before noon as the market was crowded with shoppers
in the city, which has a mixed population with a slight majority of ethnic
Turks. At least eight people were killed and 25 were wounded, police said.
Northern Iraq has seen a recent rise in violence that many blame on
insurgents fleeing the Baghdad security crackdown.
``What is the guilt of the people who came to sell or buy fruit and
vegetables?'' said Shawan Saleh, a Kurd who owns a restaurant near the
market and rushed to the site. ``There were no military or policemen in the
market. It was only innocent civilians. The insurgents want to kill as many
as they can. They want to ease the pressure on their fellows in Baghdad.''
In western Baghdad, meanwhile, a suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi
army checkpoint in the Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk, killing two civilians
and wounding four, police said.
In a reminder of the persistent Sunni resentment fueling much of the
violence, the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons and a grandson were exhumed
and reburied near the ousted leader's grave in Ouja, his hometown north of
Baghdad. Saddam was hanged on Dec. 30 and buried the next day in a grave
chipped out of an interior floor of a building he had built for religious
events.
Tribal officials said they decided to move the remains of Saddam's sons
Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, and his 14-year-old grandson Mustafa - who died
July 22, 2003, in a gunbattle with U.S. troops in the northern city of
Mosul - to keep all members of the family in one place.
Tribal chief Ali al-Nida and three other relatives accompanied the bodies as
they were transferred Tuesday in three cars from the cemetery about a mile
from the building in which Saddam is buried.
The three bodies were buried in the courtyard near the graves of Saddam's
half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed
al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, who also were sent to
the gallows in January for the killings of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail
in 1982.
The five graves were covered with Iraqi flags as people prayed next to them
during the service in Ouja, near the scene of Saddam's capture by U.S.
soldiers in December 2003.
A U.S. Marine was killed Tuesday during combat operations in the western
province of Anbar, the U.S. military said.
In other violence, police said:
- A municipal council chief and three other people were shot to death as
they were driving in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in Baghdad.
- Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad.
The mosque, which was severely damaged, was empty and there were no
casualties.
- The head of the Red Crescent Society branch in Tikrit, Jassim al-Jubouri,
was abducted by gunmen Monday night.