Thursday, 15 June 2006The security crackdown in Baghdad entered its second day as authorities sought to restore stability in the violence-plagued Iraqi capital.
More than 50,000 Iraqi and US forces descended on the streets of Baghdad Wednesday as part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan for the city which has seen dozens of people killed each day in bombings and shootings.
The plan, Operation Forward Together, is one of the largest since the March 2003 invasion by US-led troops and Maliki called upon all political groups, religious leaders and ordinary Iraqis to support it.
The crackdown, which follows Al-Qaeda's warning of attacks to avenge last week's killing of its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and US President George W. Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad Tuesday, was planned long ago, said Maliki.
On Wednesday, he emphasized that no single community was being targeted.
Upbeat from his Baghdad mission, Bush told reporters in Washington that 26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 Iraqi police and 7,200 coalition forces were part of the operation in Baghdad.
The aim was to "restore security and return law to high-risk areas in the capital city", he said.
Defense Minister Abdel Qader Mohammed Jassim hinted on Wednesday that the security operation would continue for several days. "This operation, we have timetable dates and it will build in strength," he said.
"What is going on is random killing, with 80 percent of violence against innocent civilians, 15 percent against Iraqi forces and five percent against coalition forces," said Jassim.
The security plan includes house-to-house searches of areas suspected of hiding insurgents as well as a crackdown on civilians carrying weapons.
A night-time curfew in Baghdad was also extended by two and a half hours and a vehicle ban was announced for during the Muslim midday prayer hours on Fridays.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani demanded that the plan focus on the whole of Baghdad and "not just certain areas".
"We do not want people to feel that the measure is targeting certain areas," said Talabani, who is a Kurd. "We want people to feel that it targets terrorists."
Increased sectarian strife in recent months has made Sunni Arabs in Baghdad suspicious of the Shiite-dominated armed forces.
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Thursday, 15 June 2006
BakuToday
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