US orders review of Baghdad crackdown: Bomb attacks rock 3 Iraqi towns
BAGHDAD, Oct 19: The top American commander in Iraq has ordered a review of a US-led crackdown in Baghdad, a spokesman said on Thursday, as reinforcements have failed to ease violence and the US death toll has spiked this month.
A deadly series of bomb attacks in three Iraqi towns marked another day of brutal violence on Thursday that left scores of people dead as a fierce debate over how to prosecute the war gripped Washington.
Seventy-one US troops have been killed this month, a toll US commanders have blamed on more perilous patrolling by forces trying to stamp out sectarian militias and guerillas in the sprawling capital.
“Gen Casey has ordered a review of Operation Together Forward. US casualties are a grave concern but that is not driving the review,” Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said.
“The enemy is adapting and we have to make changes,” he told Reuters. “This is a constant review process.” He said that General George Casey, who commands the 140,000 US troops in Iraq ordered the review last week.
US commanders launched Operation Forward Together in August to rein in spiralling sectarian violence in Baghdad, seen as key to stabilising Iraq. Some 15,000 US troops are helping Iraqi forces in raids that have targeted specific neighbourhoods.
US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said on Thursday the crackdown had not eased violence overall.
“In Baghdad, Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but it has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence,” he told a news conference.
After falling to 43 in July, the US toll rose to 65 in August and to 71 last month. At the current pace, October will likely be one of the deadliest months for US forces since the 2003 invasion.
MOSUL SHUDDERS: The northern city of Mosul shuddered under 10 apparently coordinated attacks erupting at 20-minute intervals, including several suicide car bombs, mortar fire and small arms assaults against US-led forces and Iraqi police.
The bloodiest attack was a massive suicide truck bomb against a police station that local authorities say killed 11 and wounded 26 — the vast majority of them innocent bystanders — but more blasts followed.
Police have closed the entrances to the city and imposed a curfew following the 10 attacks, which took place over just three hours. The toll apart from the truck bomb was estimated at four civilian dead.
Two of the suicide attacks were against US forces, but there was no immediate word on military casualties.
Further south in the oil city of Kirkuk two suicide attacks a total of 18 people, while in the Shiite market town of Khalis in Diyala province a bomb in a crowded market killed 17 shoppers, police and medics said.
According to US military spokesman Major General Caldwell, the past three weeks have seen a shift in focus of attacks from civilians to both US and Iraqi security forces.
US strategy has long been to build up Iraq’s government and security forces until they are able to contain extremist elements, but this year’s outbreak of sectarian violence has exposed serious failings in Iraqi units.
Police units especially have been accused of collaborating with sectarian militias which US commanders now describe as the biggest single threat to Iraq’s future.
Now, Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki’s own determination to fight the militias is also in question, after he ordered US forces on Wednesday to release a Shia militant detained on suspicion of running a death squad.
In the southern city of Amara ‘rogue elements’ of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia fought a pitched battle with Iraqi police, forcing the Iraqi Army to send reinforcements into the town.
“Three gunmen and four civilians were killed, and 35 people are wounded, including police, insurgents and civilians,” said Zamil al-Oreibi, medical director of the city healthy department.
“There are more police casualties, but they have not been recovered yet. The fighting is still going on,” he added.
Military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said British forces were on stand-by to support the Iraqi troops if needed.
In other violence, five people were killed, including two police, in a bomb attack against a police convoy, and Brigadier General Kadhim Mahdi of the border police was assassinated in the south Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah.
Across Diyala province, aside from the blast in Khalis, northeast of Baghdad, nine people were killed in separate incidents.—Reuters/AFP
