Violence in Baghdad cut by half: military

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Violence in Baghdad has dropped by
nearly half since July, after U.S.-led forces launched an
operation to pacify the capital, a U.S. general said on Monday,
while acknowledging a spike in bombings in the past 48 hours.

U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell also
said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would assume operational
control of Iraq’s armed forces next month in what he called a
significant step toward Iraq taking responsibility for its
security.

Caldwell hinted at a looming confrontation between U.S. and
Iraqi forces and the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi’ite
cleric Moqtada al Sadr, whose Sadr City slum stronghold has not
yet been targeted in Operation Together Forward.

“The intention is for Iraqi security forces to operate
through the entire city of Baghdad,” Caldwell told journalists.

Sadr City is largely a no-go area for the Iraqi security
forces and even U.S. troops’ few forays there have resulted in
fierce gunbattles with militiamen. Analysts say the continued
existence of the militias poses a threat to Iraq’s stability.

Street fighting between Iraqi troops and Mehdi Army
militiamen killed 25 soldiers in a town south of Baghdad on
Monday, military and hospital sources said.

Caldwell said troops had cleared 33,000 buildings, seized
more than 700 weapons and detained 70 suspects during the
three-week-old operation to quell violence in Baghdad.

The daily murder rate had dropped 46 percent from July to
August and car bombings were at their lowest rate for eight
months, he said, while noting a spate of car bombings and
shootings at the weekend which killed dozens.

“Insurgents and terrorists are hitting back in an attempt
to offset the success of the Iraqi government and its security
forces and divert media attention from Operation Together
Forward,” he said.

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One sign of the improved security situation was “the
unusual number of weddings in the streets of Baghdad,” children
riding bicycles, and the reopening of shops, he added.

Residents of areas targeted by Operation Together Forward
have welcomed the drop in violence but questioned how long it
will last. Parts of Baghdad are also still virtual ghost towns.

Operation Together Forward is designed to root out
insurgents, ease sectarian violence, improve basic services,
and raise the credibility and profile of Iraqi security forces,
whose performance will determine when U.S. troops can go home.

The U.S. military has been training a new Iraqi military so
that it can begin withdrawing some of its 135,000 soldiers, but
a surge in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shi’ite
shrine in February has frustrated its withdrawal timetable.

Caldwell said control of the 115,000 soldiers in Iraq’s 10
new army divisions would pass from the U.S.-led coalition to an
Iraqi joint headquarters in early September, although the
process would take several months to complete.

“This will be a significant step on Iraq’s path to
self-reliance and security,” he said.

He acknowledged the army still needed logistical support
from the U.S. military, but noted: “Any new organization is
going to go through growing pains. The army and police are just
three years’ old.”