Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Houston Chronicle
January 14, 2007
Force of 3,000 to join U.S., Iraqi troops in city's security operation
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BAGHDAD, IRAQ — A Kurdish army brigade from northern Iraq is undergoing intensive urban combat training for deployment to Baghdad, where it expects to take on the Mahdi Army Shiite militia, its commander said Saturday.
Meanwhile, three Iraqi generals said the Iraqi commander who will lead the Baghdad security mission was the government's second choice and only got the job after the U.S. military objected to the first officer named to the post by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
In the northern city of Irbil, Brig. Gen. Nazir Assem Korran, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division of the Iraqi army, said "we will head to Baghdad soon. We have 3,000 soldiers who are currently undergoing intensive training especially in urban combat and how the army should act inside a city."
Korran said he did not know how the operation would unfold but said the Defense Ministry had asked his brigade to take part in the security operation along with thousands of other Iraqi and U.S. troops.
The forces are to conduct neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches to clear the city of Sunni Muslim insurgents and local militias such as the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been an ally of al-Maliki.
"We are going to confront any terrorist elements or militias. We will confront any outlaws," the general said. He did not name the Mahdi Army, but the Shiite militia is blamed for much of the capital's sectarian killing.
Later in the day, al-Maliki issued his first comment on the new Bush administration plan outlined on Wednesday, declaring it "identical to our strategy and intentions." President Bush said he would send additional 21,500 troops to help pacify the capital and other parts of the country.
Al-Maliki, however, continued to avoid naming al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
On Wednesday, Iraqi military officials said al-Maliki had chosen Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar a week ago as commander of the new security plan in the capital, where sectarian bloodshed built to a crescendo at the end of last year, with more than 100 people killed on many days.
On Saturday, three Iraqi generals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Gambar's appointment had not been publicly confirmed, said al-Maliki's first choice — Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Freiji — had been vetoed by American officials.
The U.S. military did not respond to an AP e-mail asking for verification of the dispute.
Gambar will report directly to al-Maliki.
Korran, the general in Irbil, said his troops would rely on translators because 95 percent of the brigade is Kurdish and unable to speak Arabic. Kurds, a separate ethnic group, are largely Sunnis but not Arabs.
January 14, 2007
Force of 3,000 to join U.S., Iraqi troops in city's security operation
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BAGHDAD, IRAQ — A Kurdish army brigade from northern Iraq is undergoing intensive urban combat training for deployment to Baghdad, where it expects to take on the Mahdi Army Shiite militia, its commander said Saturday.
Meanwhile, three Iraqi generals said the Iraqi commander who will lead the Baghdad security mission was the government's second choice and only got the job after the U.S. military objected to the first officer named to the post by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
In the northern city of Irbil, Brig. Gen. Nazir Assem Korran, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division of the Iraqi army, said "we will head to Baghdad soon. We have 3,000 soldiers who are currently undergoing intensive training especially in urban combat and how the army should act inside a city."
Korran said he did not know how the operation would unfold but said the Defense Ministry had asked his brigade to take part in the security operation along with thousands of other Iraqi and U.S. troops.
The forces are to conduct neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches to clear the city of Sunni Muslim insurgents and local militias such as the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been an ally of al-Maliki.
"We are going to confront any terrorist elements or militias. We will confront any outlaws," the general said. He did not name the Mahdi Army, but the Shiite militia is blamed for much of the capital's sectarian killing.
Later in the day, al-Maliki issued his first comment on the new Bush administration plan outlined on Wednesday, declaring it "identical to our strategy and intentions." President Bush said he would send additional 21,500 troops to help pacify the capital and other parts of the country.
Al-Maliki, however, continued to avoid naming al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
On Wednesday, Iraqi military officials said al-Maliki had chosen Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar a week ago as commander of the new security plan in the capital, where sectarian bloodshed built to a crescendo at the end of last year, with more than 100 people killed on many days.
On Saturday, three Iraqi generals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Gambar's appointment had not been publicly confirmed, said al-Maliki's first choice — Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Freiji — had been vetoed by American officials.
The U.S. military did not respond to an AP e-mail asking for verification of the dispute.
Gambar will report directly to al-Maliki.
Korran, the general in Irbil, said his troops would rely on translators because 95 percent of the brigade is Kurdish and unable to speak Arabic. Kurds, a separate ethnic group, are largely Sunnis but not Arabs.