Government forces fanned out across Baghdad Wednesday, setting up checkpoints and causing huge traffic snarls on the first day of the largest security operation in Iraq's capital since Saddam Hussein's ouster three years ago. Violence dipped slightly in Baghdad, with just one car bomb killing four and injuring six. Another four people died in separate shooting incidents around Iraq.Operation Forward Together, involving tens of thousands of Iraqi army and police forces backed by US troops, began at a crucial time — one day after US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to reassure Iraqis of Washington's continued support and exactly a week after the death of Abu Mussab Zarqawi. It was also the first major action by Prime Minister Nuri Maliki since his new government of national unity was sworn in on May 20, and a week after he gained the consensus he needed from Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups to fill three key posts — defence, interior and national security.
Tackling Baghdad's tenuous security has been the aim of several counterinsurgency operations in the past — including one launched one year ago. That operation, code named “Lightning” failed to have any impact on the bombings, shootings and killings that have become daily fare in Baghdad. Maliki pledged Wednesday not to negotiate with those who had shed innocent blood, the latest in a series of tough statements he has made since American bombs last week killed Zarqawi. But it remains to be seen whether Maliki, a veteran politician with years of experience as an opposition activist in exile, can back up his uncompromising rhetoric with action.