Commander for new Iraq security plan named

Iraq’s prime minister has named an Iraqi general who was taken prisoner of war by US troops during the 1991 Gulf War as the commander of a new security plan that aims to restore stability in Baghdad, military officers said tonight.

Lieutenant General Aboud Gambar was chosen by Nouri Maliki on Saturday, the day the prime minister said Iraqi forces would launch a major drive to quell the violence in the capital, mainly the work of al-Qaida in Iraq and allied Sunni insurgent groups and the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, which has been blamed for much of the sectarian violence in the capital.