BAGHDAD, May 26: Iraq’s government will pour tens of thousands of Iraqi troops into Baghdad in an unprecedented operation to seal off the city and hunt guerillas who have launched a fresh wave of violence, ministers said on Thursday. Defence Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said 40,000 Iraqi troops will be deployed in Baghdad for Operation Thunder, the biggest Iraqi military operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Backed by the 10,000 US troops in Baghdad, they will set up hundreds of checkpoints and block roads into the capital.
The dramatic rise in suicide bombings and ambushes by mostly Sunni Arab guerrillas has killed more than 600 Iraqis in the last four weeks and raised fears that Iraq could slide towards civil war if the Shi’ite-led government does not deliver on pledges of stability. Dulaimi said the crackdown would expand to other parts of Iraq after starting in Baghdad. But he did not say where the extra troops would come from or what their level of training would be. Many Iraqi troops are under-trained and under-equipped.
“These operations will aim to turn the government’s role from defensive to offensive,” Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor said at a news conference announcing the off.
Despite the announcement, attacks persisted nationwide, with at least 15 people killed in bomb blasts and shootings.
The crackdown is the first major security action undertaken by the new government and comes as US forces conduct a security sweep in rebellious western Iraq.
“We shall not leave any place for terrorists or those who shelter them and incite terrorism in Iraq,” Dulaimi said. “We will stand against all those who try to shed Iraqi blood. We will implement the law with everything we’ve got.”
He said troops would be drawn from interior and defence ministry forces and would begin operating in the capital, with the city divided into sections, a unit responsible for each.
“We will also impose a stringent blockade around Baghdad, like a bracelet around an arm, God willing, and God be with us in our crackdown on the terrorists’ infrastructure. No one will be able to penetrate this blockade,” Dulaimi said.
“You will witness unprecedented, strict security measures.”
ANBAR OFFENSIVE: The move comes a day after US forces launched Operation New Market, a security sweep in the town of Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad, where 1,000 US Marines and sailors, backed by Iraqi troops, are searching for militants.
New Market is the second major security operation in the area this month as US and Iraqi forces step up their hunt for followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who heads Al Qaeda’s network in Iraq.
An Internet posting this week apparently from the Al Qaeda organization in Iraq said Zarqawi, for whom Washington is offering a $25 million bounty, had been wounded in fighting, although it did not say when, where or how.—Reuters
