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Violence in Baghdad cut by half: military

Posted on: Monday, 28 August 2006, 11:19 CDT

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."

Source: REUTERS

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