Insurgents kill dozens in spite of crackdown
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents defied a much-touted military crackdown in the capital Sunday, targeting police checkpoints, the Oil Ministry and convoys of U.S. and Iraqi troops.
In at least five suicide bombings within six hours, insurgents killed 20 members of the fledgling security forces. By the end of the day, militants had killed at least eight other Iraqis, as the death toll in a monthlong escalation of violence pushed beyond 720.
Armored sport utility vehicles and pickups carrying Iraqi police and national guardsmen sped through the capital, drawing fire and scattering civilian drivers trying to put distance between themselves and the targeted convoys. Small-arms fire from insurgent ambushes in several Baghdad neighborhoods crackled throughout the day as the embattled new government continued deploying what it said would be 40,000 police and troops.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s spokesman, Laith Kubba, said more than 500 arrests had been made in the first two days of the sweep, known as Operation Lightning. Iraqi and U.S. officials had predicted that militants besieging Baghdad with daily suicide bombings and assassinations would flee the crackdown, announced Thursday.
Iraqi and U.S. officials had planned to erect 675 checkpoints along the capital’s outskirts to prevent insurgents from fleeing, but they have yet to set up an effective cordon. Instead, insurgents staged attacks across the capital, targeting the very checkpoints meant to ensnare them. The deadliest of the day’s attacks occurred when about 50 insurgents stormed a checkpoint, killing nine Iraqi troops attempting to monitor and search passing vehicles. The government said 14 insurgents died in the exchange of gunfire.
Kubba said the government would press on with the campaign, with street-by-street, house-to-house searches planned to flush out insurgents. “Search operations and raids have allowed us to arrest 500 people and find arms caches in several houses,” he said. About the militants’ bloody counteroffensive, Kubba said, “We were expecting reactions, but this will have no effect on the general course of the operation.”
While Iraqi police and soldiers were scrambling to seal off the capital, some U.S. officials expressed concern that the crackdown would lack “precision” and further erode public support for al-Jaafari’s government, which took power April 28 and has witnessed a concerted challenge to its authority from insurgents.
“One thing we’ve stressed with them is the need for precision,” a senior U.S. military official said of the raids. “You can’t just roll people up. It alienates them.”
Troops belonging to the U.S.-led coalition are backing the raids but officers have emphasized that Operation Lightning is an Iraqi-led mission. Outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which serves as the headquarters of the U.S. military and Iraqi government, U.S. troops stood at the ready to help with investigation of two suspected car bombs but received no request for assistance.
A Basra traveler who came to Baghdad complained that the Iraqi display of force was little more than propaganda. “We saw nothing of this promised plan which had given us all hope of relief,” said Othman al-Gjhanim, noting that his car was neither stopped nor searched.
A Web site used by Islamic militants carried a posting purportedly from suspected insurgent mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which he vowed to personally lead al Qaeda loyalists in defeating the crackdown. The statement claimed responsibility for the spree of attacks Sunday.
Al-Zarqawi has been reported to be recovering from wounds suffered during a clash with coalition forces in mid-May. Various reports on Islamic militant Web sites have had him near death, undergoing treatment in neighboring Iran and spearheading the latest assaults. None could be verified.