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| Iraq |
| Clashes break out as Iraq begins crackdown |
| 2006-06-15 |
| Clashes broke out between insurgents and Iraqi security forces and a car bomb killed at least two people in Baghdad yesterday as the government launched a security clampdown to root out Al Qaeda militants. Gunmen carrying automatic rifles blocked roads with stones and tree trunks and exchanged fire with Iraqi troops in Adhamiya, a Sunni insurgent stronghold that is one of Baghdad's most dangerous areas, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. Civilians fled the area but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Three Iraqi army tanks were dispatched to Adhamiya. The clashes subsided later yesterday. In northern Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two people and wounded seven. A Reuters photographer who was 10 metres (yards) from the blast saw a man and a teenager burning amid wreckage after the bomb caused a big fireball. The clampdown, which included extra checkpoints and Iraqi security patrols backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, came a day after US President George W Bush met new Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who is under pressure to rein in violence. With a population of seven million, Baghdad has been the scene of daily carnage and kidnappings. Restoring some security in Baghdad would be a symbolic victory for Maliki, a tough-talking Shi'ite who last week overcame fierce wrangling among his Shi'ite and Sunni coalition partners to fill the key Interior and Defence ministries. Despite growing domestic unease, Bush has resisted setting a public timetable for the withdrawal of 130,000 American troops, making clear this will depend on the capability of US-trained Iraqi forces to take over security. Maliki told Bush during his second visit to Iraq since the 2003 war that the Iraqi government was determined to defeat the insurgents so US and other forces could withdraw. Reuters reporters saw additional army checkpoints backed by armoured vehicles in Baghdad's western Mansour district and an Iraqi tank in religiously mixed Amiriya, which has seen frequent clashes between Sunni Arab insurgents and US and Iraqi forces. American forces were not in sight. There was little evidence of additional troops in the dangerous, mostly Sunni area of Dora, where the government said it would also focus its security efforts. As Bush talked to Iraqi leaders in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday, a Web statement said al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq had vowed to avenge the killing of Zarqawi. "The day of vengeance is near and your strong towers in the Green Zone will not protect you," said the statement, posted on an Internet site often used by Islamist militants and signed by the new leader Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir. US and Iraqi officials have hailed the killing of Zarqawi, a Sunni Arab like most guerrillas in Iraq, as a major blow to Al Qaeda militants while cautioning it will not end bloodshed. "There are going to be tough days ahead, and more sacrifice for Americans, as well as Iraqis," Bush told US troops. "Our military will stay on the offensive. We will continue to hunt down people like Mr Zarqawi, and bring them to justice," he said to applause. Iraqi officials billed Wednesday's clampdown as one of the biggest such operations in the last three years. "It is an operation to step up pressure on Al Qaeda in Baghdad," national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told state television on Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Three Iraqi army tanks were dispatched Red lettre day? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-15 14:27 |
| #2 Damn,those Reuters guys must be clairvoyant,especially that photographer...seemed to know right where a bomb would go off. |
| Posted by: jkh 2006-06-15 13:52 |
| #1 Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir...put the crosshairs on him too. |
| Posted by: JohnQ 2006-06-15 10:50 |