Topic: US troops roll into Baghdad to stem sectarian bloodshed

Team Infidel

BAGHDAD - US reinforcements rolled into some of the most violent districts
of Baghdad on Sunday in a fleet of 17-tonne armoured troop carriers as part
of a major push to halt Iraq's slide towards civil war.

Units of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team could be seen deploying in
flashpoint districts in the west of the Iraqi capital, which in recent weeks
has seen hundreds of civilians killed in attacks by sectarian death squads.

As they arrived, the blasts of two roadside bombs echoed around the city.
One of the attacks injured two Iraqi police commandos and two civilians in
the Jihad neighbourhood, according to an official at the interior ministry.

An extra 3,700 combat troops will join Operation Forward Together in support
of some 50,000 mainly-Iraqi personnel battling to regain control of the
capital and to restore the authority of the embattled coalition government.

"The Stryker Brigade continues to move, and its final positions are still
being worked out," said Major William Willhoite, a US spokesman.

Last week, the senior US general in charge of operations in the Middle East
warned that Baghdad's descent into chaos could sabotage efforts to rebuild
Iraq as a stable country more than three years after the fall of former
president Saddam Hussein.

"I believe the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in
Baghdad in particular, and that, if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq
could move toward civil war," said General John Abizaid, head of US Central
Command.

Abizaid was testifying before a Senate committee following a Pentagon
decision to prolong the 172nd brigade's tour of duty in Iraq, effectively
freezing a plan to dramatically reduce US troop numbers by the end of the
year.

The Stryker Brigade had already completed a 12-month deployment in the
restive region around the northern city of Mosul and had begun to head home
to Alaska when the order came to proceed to Baghdad for the next 120 days.

In Mosul, the 172nd -- nicknamed the "Artic Wolves" -- handed over authority
to the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a US statement said. The handover
maintained US troop levels in Iraq at around 130,000.

The Artic Wolves are equipped with the "Stryker", a wheeled armoured car
which can carry nine troops plus a crew. It is regarded as better suited
than a tracked vehicle to urban terrain, and safer than a Humvee utility
vehicle.

General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, said in a message last week
on a US military website that the Baghdad deployment was key to his
strategy.

"These death squads are nothing but a terribly destructive element of
society and, along with terrorists and other members of the insurgency, must
be defeated and brought to justice," he wrote.

"Baghdad is clearly central to this effort. Our strategy is to remain on the
offence. In coordination with the prime minister and leaders within the
Iraqi security forces, we are modifying our operational concept," he added.

Two months ago, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a plan to
restore security to Baghdad by deploying 43,000 Iraqi police and army and
just over 7,000 US troops around his capital.

The plan has so far failed to contain the violence, however, as daily bomb
attacks target police posts and crowds of civilians and faceless death
squads kidnap, torture and shoot more than a dozen victims per day.

Some attacks are carried out by anti-government insurgents, some by militias
loyal to one or other of the factions in the coalition, some by criminals
and some by sectarian extremists from the rival Sunni and Shiite
communities.

Taken together, there are around 60 violent incidents per day in the city.

__________________