Iraqis cautious over Baghdad security crackdown

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: Reuters
Byline: Michael Georgy
Date: 25 August 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. commanders have declared their security crackdown
in Baghdad a contest for the future of the entire country but many in the
capital have a hard time believing anything can save their city from further
bloodshed.

General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said this
week Operation Together Forward has brought "great progress", noting an
extra 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops on the street had eased insurgent and
sectarian violence.

But boosting morale on the streets, where tracts of Baghdad have become
ghost towns even by day, will require a lot more than an uptick in
statistics on rebel deaths and weapons seized.

Row upon row of shops stand shuttered along the main street of Mansour, once
a thriving, upscale commercial district with salons, boutiques, jewelry
stores and pastry shops all a few streets away from most of Baghdad's
embassies.

Al Sa'aa, one of the city's most popular restaurants, is still operating
there. But its staff say gunmen have killed seven people on their street in
the last two weeks alone, prompting more people to padlock their businesses.

Down the street, grocery store owner Alaa Mohammed explains why he fled to
Syria, before coming back in the hope of getting his business going again:
"Gunmen just walked up to that toy store and killed the owner and his
brother. I saw them. They were in normal clothes. It was very easy," he said
before pointing to three other shops whose owners have been slain.

U.S. troops have taken control of four of the previously most violent
districts, hoping to provide a basis on which Iraqis can take charge. But it
is unclear whether militiamen and rebels have quit or are just keeping their
heads down briefly.

The three-week-old clampdown has not convinced shopkeeper Imad Fadil he will
be safe anytime soon.

In the last week a roadside bomb blew up near an Iraqi army patrol and a
teenage plumber was shot dead, all within 10 meters (yards) of his store in
Hay al-Jamiaa, which is near Sunni insurgent strongholds taken over by U.S.
and Iraqi forces.

"I have not seen any of these American or Iraqi troops. Where is our
government?" he asked.

UNDER PRESSURE

Operation Together Forward is designed to show Iraqis that their local
forces are taking charge. But police commandos stationed between two rebel
strongholds seemed in little mood to fight insurgents who have killed
thousands of their comrades.

"We have good training from the Americans. But we are often attacked. The
terrorists fire mortars or shoot at us," said Ali Abdul Ghani, pointing to
rows of houses opposite his sandbagged checkpoint and which provide cover
for the guerrillas.

"This morning they fired on us during a patrol and I shot back. Now I have
to pay for some bullets because I fired too many. It's an Interior Ministry
rule. I just want to go back to my hometown," he complained.

The conflict has crept to neighborhoods once known for bustling restaurants
and ice cream parlors. Palm tree trunks have been set up as road blocks
against suicide bombers in cars.

"At night we have our own patrols and in the morning car bombs usually
explode between 7 and 8, so people don't go out," said Seif al-Husseini, a
computer specialist outside his family's villa in the once prosperous
district of Zayouna.

Iraqi nerves have been especially frayed since militiamen stormed the mainly
Sunni district of Hay al-Jihad on July 9, killing dozens of people and
bolstering sectarian tensions.

Operation Forward Together has dramatically reduced violence in places like
the southern Doura district, site of some of the most savage sectarian
killings over the past few months.

Waiting his turn, minibus driver Mohammad Daoud cheerfully noted that
gunbattles were rarer in the area. But like many Iraqis, he doubts local
forces can bring security on their own.

"As long as the Americans are here it is fine," he said. "If they leave it
to the Iraqi police the killing will just return."
 
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