Iraq analysis

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U.S. army press information centre:
Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbs killings of U.S. soldiers

Two U.S. soldiers killed in Baghdad

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Baghdad - Unidentified gunmen Wednesday shot dead deputy Adhamiyah provincial leader Mozafar al-Obaidi and two of his guards in southern Baghdad, state al-Iraqiya television reported.

Adhamiyah district is known for violence and bombings targeting US troops and Iraqi police and military forces.

Also Wednesday at least one person was killed and four were wounded in a car bomb blast in the western Baghdad district of Yarmouk, an Iraqi security source said.

In other news, several members of the Iraqi Accord Front party, which occupies 44 seats in parliament, survived a mass assassination attempt in Yarmouk district when an explosive device targeted them, wounding a security guard. Security and military forces were deployed in the area searching for the attackers.

Despite the news of renewed violence in Baghdad on Wednesday, however, the Iraqi news agency INA reported that police in Baghdad were finding fewer bodies in the streets, one month after new security measures were introduced.

It quoted a representative of Baghdad province security committee, Majid al-Shuwaili, as saying: 'The phenomenon of unidentified bodies found on a daily basis has decreased by 62 per cent.'

An even more significant decrease - of 71 per cent - had been recorded among attacks on politicians, clerics and other public figures, according to the representative. The number of car bombs in the Baghdad area had decreased by 36 per cent since February.

Before the introduction of the new security measures, around 100 bodies of murder victims were being found in Baghdad each day.

According to unofficial figures, Iraqi security forces in the capital used to kill some 60 armed people within a month. Around 1,000 suspects were arrested, while 110 bombs and 16 car bombs were defused.

'The security situation in Haifa Street and in the Alwiya quarter is now stable, after the area has been cleared off terrorist elements,' Police Lieutenant-Colonel Dhafer Kader said Wednesday.

An extension of the security forces' powers and improved cooperation between the secret service and the police had yielded good results, he said.

Salim Abdullah, a member of the Sunni Iraqi Consensus Front party, however criticized security forces, who had allegedly arrested many people without a warrant in recent weeks.

Adhamiyah's deputy provincial leader assassinated in southern Baghdad

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U.S. Marine killed in Al Anbar

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U.S. soldier killed in Al Anbar

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One U.S. soldier shot dead, two others killed by bombs, nine wounded in attacks in Diyala province

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BAGHDAD -- The US-led convoy had been idling for at least an hour, waiting for a bomb squad to detonate a sizable haul of explosives uncovered in raids on the Eskan neighborhood of south Baghdad, a dense warren of narrow streets teeming with Sunni insurgents and roadside bombs.

It had been a successful morning: The US forces, working alongside Iraqi national police, had detained 10 men in raids on the homes of suspected insurgents and had uncovered a homemade rocket launcher, two rifles, and a cache of mortar rounds.

Then there was an explosion, but not the one they were waiting for.

The convoy was under attack.

Snipers had thrown a grenade, followed by the loud, rapid hammer of automatic weapon fire from a rooftop and from behind a fuel tank. American and Iraqi soldiers returned fire. No one was hit, and the snipers melted back into the neighborhood.

So went another typical day in the joint US-Iraqi government security crackdown war against an unseen enemy.

As the forces try to restore calm to the Iraqi capital, they have moved largely without incident into neighborhoods dominated by Shi'ite extremists whose leaders are allies of the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government.

But in districts dominated by Sunni Arab insurgents and their foreign compatriots, the US-led forces are facing a much larger and bloody challenge.

The Eskan neighborhood and the larger Dora district may be the biggest stronghold of the Al Qaeda in Iraq network in Baghdad, and US-led forces seeking to bring order are regularly coming under attack. The troops of the Second Brigade, 12th Infantry Regiment, "Chosen" company, from Fort Carson, Colorado, search for insurgents and weapons with information provided to the Iraqi national police by detainees and informants.

The Shi'ite-dominated police are a fledgling, some might say ragtag , force. They wear mismatching uniforms, and not all have boots. Still, US soldiers give them high marks for obtaining quality intelligence.

For the more than 30 American soldiers assigned to enter the Eskan neighborhood on Sunday, the day began at 3 a.m. when they rolled out of Forward Operating Base Falcon, a few miles to the south. Their goal was to capture a sniper who had been wounded in a previous gun battle with US-led forces and to search for hidden caches of weapons.

The plan was to meet their Iraqi counterparts at their base and begin the raids by 4 a.m., while still under the cover of darkness. Once at the Iraqi national police outpost, however, there were other priorities.

The Iraqi officers invited the Americans to join them for a breakfast of chai tea, flatbread and hard-boiled eggs. The informants, who were brought in to review maps and confirm targets, disagreed on locations. The original plan was mostly scrapped, in favor of fewer targets. As a result, the US asked the Iraqis to reduce the size of their force, but they demurred. By then it was nearly 5 a.m.

After a slow crawl into the crowded neighborhood, the convoy stopped and the soldiers jumped out of their Humvees, running low and fast through the street. They raided two homes, separating wailing women and girls from frightened and silent men and boys.

No weapons were found in either household and the occupants insisted they had done nothing wrong.

In Baghdad raids, tables turn quickly against U.S.

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Another U.S. Marine dies in Al Anbar