Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
February 17, 2008
Pg. 1
Iraq's military credits "Operation Imposing Law" and 12-foot blast walls.
By Aws Qusay, Reuters News Agency
BAGHDAD — Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen by up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said yesterday.
Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar said the success of a yearlong clampdown called “Operation Imposing Law” had reined in the savage violence between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under since-ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
“In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions, gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad were awaiting Operation Imposing Law,” Gen. Qanbar told reporters.
He pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on the capital’s streets as an indicator of success.
In the six weeks to the end of 2006, an average of 43 bodies were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian fighting threatened to turn into fullscale civil war.
That figure fell to four a day in 2008, in the period up to Feb. 12, said Gen. Qanbar, who heads the Baghdad security operation.
“Various enemy activities” had fallen by between 75 percent and 80 percent since the security plan was implemented, he said.
To demonstrate how life had improved, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toured parts of the city yesterday, visiting Iraqi forces and checkpoints.
“He wanted . . . to send a message to the terrorists that security in Baghdad is prevailing now,” one official said.
Central to the success has been the erection of 12-foot concrete walls that snake across the city.
The walls were designed to stop car bombings blamed on al Qaeda that turned markets and open areas into killing fields.
Gen. Qanbar said he hoped the walls could be taken down “in the coming months” and predicted the improved situation in Baghdad would translate to greater security elsewhere.
The U.S. military says attacks have fallen across Iraq by 60 percent since June on the back of security clampdowns and the deployment of 30,000 extra American troops.
Vital to the fall in violence was also a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turn against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in late 2006 and form neighborhood security units, which man checkpoints and provide tips on militants’ hide-outs.
However, their relationship with Iraqi authorities remains tense. The Shi’ite-led government is wary of the units, called “awakening councils” by the U.S. military and whose ranks include former Sunni Arab insurgents.
“Everyone should know that the official security forces represent the country. And it is the one side that has the right to bear arms and impose security,” Gen. Qanbar said.
In a sign of the tensions, one awakening council said it was suspending its activities after three members were killed in an incident near the town of Jurf alSukr, south of Baghdad.
The unit blamed American soldiers for Friday’s deaths. The U.S. military said attack helicopters had responded with rockets after security forces came under small-arms fire.
While Iraqi and U.S. officials laud the security gains, humanitarian groups say it is still too early to encourage around 2 million refugees who fled Iraq to return home.
“The plight of Iraqi refugees will end with national reconciliation,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told reporters during a visit to Baghdad.
Mr. Guterres said he is sending a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Guterres also pledged to increase his group’s staffing level in Baghdad from two to five persons.
February 17, 2008
Pg. 1
Iraq's military credits "Operation Imposing Law" and 12-foot blast walls.
By Aws Qusay, Reuters News Agency
BAGHDAD — Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen by up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said yesterday.
Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar said the success of a yearlong clampdown called “Operation Imposing Law” had reined in the savage violence between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under since-ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
“In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions, gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad were awaiting Operation Imposing Law,” Gen. Qanbar told reporters.
He pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on the capital’s streets as an indicator of success.
In the six weeks to the end of 2006, an average of 43 bodies were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian fighting threatened to turn into fullscale civil war.
That figure fell to four a day in 2008, in the period up to Feb. 12, said Gen. Qanbar, who heads the Baghdad security operation.
“Various enemy activities” had fallen by between 75 percent and 80 percent since the security plan was implemented, he said.
To demonstrate how life had improved, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toured parts of the city yesterday, visiting Iraqi forces and checkpoints.
“He wanted . . . to send a message to the terrorists that security in Baghdad is prevailing now,” one official said.
Central to the success has been the erection of 12-foot concrete walls that snake across the city.
The walls were designed to stop car bombings blamed on al Qaeda that turned markets and open areas into killing fields.
Gen. Qanbar said he hoped the walls could be taken down “in the coming months” and predicted the improved situation in Baghdad would translate to greater security elsewhere.
The U.S. military says attacks have fallen across Iraq by 60 percent since June on the back of security clampdowns and the deployment of 30,000 extra American troops.
Vital to the fall in violence was also a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turn against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in late 2006 and form neighborhood security units, which man checkpoints and provide tips on militants’ hide-outs.
However, their relationship with Iraqi authorities remains tense. The Shi’ite-led government is wary of the units, called “awakening councils” by the U.S. military and whose ranks include former Sunni Arab insurgents.
“Everyone should know that the official security forces represent the country. And it is the one side that has the right to bear arms and impose security,” Gen. Qanbar said.
In a sign of the tensions, one awakening council said it was suspending its activities after three members were killed in an incident near the town of Jurf alSukr, south of Baghdad.
The unit blamed American soldiers for Friday’s deaths. The U.S. military said attack helicopters had responded with rockets after security forces came under small-arms fire.
While Iraqi and U.S. officials laud the security gains, humanitarian groups say it is still too early to encourage around 2 million refugees who fled Iraq to return home.
“The plight of Iraqi refugees will end with national reconciliation,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told reporters during a visit to Baghdad.
Mr. Guterres said he is sending a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Guterres also pledged to increase his group’s staffing level in Baghdad from two to five persons.