Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 9 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces on Wednesday formally
launched the second phase of a security plan designed to regain control of
the streets of Baghdad and put an end to a wave of vicious sectarian
murders.
Phase two of Operation Together Forward will bring an extra 6,000 Iraqi
police and troops into the capital, along with 5,500 American soldiers
pulled in from different missions elsewhere in Iraq, a US statement said.
The first phase of the plan, which began in June, has already put more than
50,000 soldiers on the streets but has thus far failed to stem a surge in
tit-for-tat sectarian killings and indiscriminate bomb attacks.
"We must dramatically reduce the level of violence in Bagdad that is
fuelling sectarianism," said Major General James Thurman, commander of
US-led forces in the Baghdad region.
"Iraqi and US forces will help the citizens of Baghdad by reducing the
violence that has plagued this city since the Samarra bombing," he said,
referring to an insurgent attack on a Shiite mosque in February.
Since July 9, Iraqi and US troops operating under the original plan have
killed or captured 411 "murderers associated with death squads", the
statement said, using the military's new catch-all term for illegal armed
groups.
Rival Sunni and Shiite death squads carry out kidnappings and assassinations
-- often with the complicity of the militias which operate in the city --
while insurgents continue to target crowds and police patrols with bombs.
On Tuesday 19 people were killed in five bombings in Baghdad and five more
died in a brutal bank robbery.
Byline: n/a
Date: 9 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces on Wednesday formally
launched the second phase of a security plan designed to regain control of
the streets of Baghdad and put an end to a wave of vicious sectarian
murders.
Phase two of Operation Together Forward will bring an extra 6,000 Iraqi
police and troops into the capital, along with 5,500 American soldiers
pulled in from different missions elsewhere in Iraq, a US statement said.
The first phase of the plan, which began in June, has already put more than
50,000 soldiers on the streets but has thus far failed to stem a surge in
tit-for-tat sectarian killings and indiscriminate bomb attacks.
"We must dramatically reduce the level of violence in Bagdad that is
fuelling sectarianism," said Major General James Thurman, commander of
US-led forces in the Baghdad region.
"Iraqi and US forces will help the citizens of Baghdad by reducing the
violence that has plagued this city since the Samarra bombing," he said,
referring to an insurgent attack on a Shiite mosque in February.
Since July 9, Iraqi and US troops operating under the original plan have
killed or captured 411 "murderers associated with death squads", the
statement said, using the military's new catch-all term for illegal armed
groups.
Rival Sunni and Shiite death squads carry out kidnappings and assassinations
-- often with the complicity of the militias which operate in the city --
while insurgents continue to target crowds and police patrols with bombs.
On Tuesday 19 people were killed in five bombings in Baghdad and five more
died in a brutal bank robbery.