Massive security operation to circle Baghdad

The government announced today that a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will ring Baghdad starting next week to try to halt a spree of insurgent violence that has killed more than 620 people this month.

The announcement comes after at least 15 Iraqis died in violence nationwide, including a child, during clashes between US forces and insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar. Among those killed were a university professor, killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, and three policemen who died in a car bombing in the capital.

The military also said a US Marine died of wounds sustained a day earlier during the launch of an anti-insurgent offensive involving about 1,000 US troops in the western city of Haditha.

The security cordon next week would be followed by similar anti-terrorism moves across the country, part of an effort to shift the government stance toward the insurgency from a defensive to an offensive position, said Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and Defence Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi.

“Next week, we will have a strong and safe cordon around Baghdad like a bracelet that surrounds the hand. We will not allow anyone to cross this cordon,” al-Duleimi said.

Jabr said there would be 675 checkpoints plus mobile checkpoints to try to deter assailants in areas where attacks are frequent and cars are often booby-trapped.

“You will witness unprecedented security measures and none familiar to you,” he said. “We have to work together, government and people, because security is for all the citizens, not just the government.”

The ministers said Baghdad would be divided into two sectors and 15 districts where police and emergency personnel would operate 24 hours a day.

“We will stand against anyone who tries to kill Iraqis and we will impose the law by adopting all tough measures,” Jabr said.

“We do believe that we are going to give Iraqis what they have lacked,” al-Duleimi said, an apparent reference to the poor security available throughout Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

A car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad near a police patrol, killing five people – three officers and two other Iraqis – and wounding 17, according to police Lt Haider Hussein and medic Naseer Hashim of Nour Hospital.

Unknown gunmen shot dead Iraqi army Capt Awas Youssif Hassan in Khalis area east of Baqouba, north-east of Baghdad, said army Col Abdulla al-Shimary.

Separately, gunmen in a speeding car fired automatic weapons at a group of people driving to work in Baghdad’s southern Risala neighbourhood, killing four Iraqis, including a university professor and a translator working for the US military, said police Lt Hussam Noori.

A top Industry Ministry official, Samir Nima Ghaidan, was shot dead by gunmen while leaving his office in northern Baghdad’s Mustansiriyah Square to return home, said army Capt Hussein Hakim. Ghaidan ran the ministry’s transport department.

Iraqi security forces and Iraqis working with coalition forces have been repeatedly attacked by insurgents determined to bring down the country’s US-backed government.

A minibus packed with passengers was attacked by gun fire in south-eastern Baghdad, leaving three people dead, including two brothers, and four wounded, said police Sgt Najim Aboud. A US military official said he had heard of the report and an investigation was underway. It was not immediately clear who attacked the bus.

More than 1,000 US troops continued a sweep through Haditha, north-west of Baghdad in the troubled Anbar province, for insurgents responsible for multiple attacks against coalition troops.

A child was killed when a mortar landed on his family home yesterday, the military added.

The offensive, the second on a road to Damascus in less than a month, was aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced April 28.

Another Iraqi child was killed today during clashes between US forces and insurgents in northern city of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.

Tal Afar has been the scene of clashes since two explosions late Monday killed at least 20 people. Iraqi security forces closed access to the town and residents have said US forces backed by helicopters have since been clashing with insurgents.

Salih Haider Qado, director of Tal Afar hospital, said two children – one about a month old and another about a year old – were killed in fighting yesterday, while four civilians were wounded.

It was unclear if the two incidents were related.

Last year, a nearly two-week siege of Tal Afar by US-led forces targeted foreign fighters holed up in the city, which is astride a smuggling route to Syria.

Mosul police Brig Saed Ahmed said six militants were also killed, 20 injured and 26 suspected insurgents arrested when militants clashed with US and Iraqi troops yesterday in Tal Afar.