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Attacks in Baghdad down 80%
16/02/2008 20:30 - (SA)
Baghdad - Attacks by insurgents and rival
sectarian militias have fallen up to 80% in Baghdad and
concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be
removed, a senior Iraqi military official said on Saturday.
Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar said the success of a
year-long clampdown named "Operation Imposing Law" had reined in
the savage violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni
Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein.
"In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions,
gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see
bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad
were awaiting Operation Imposing Law," Qanbar told reporters.
Qanbar pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on
the capital's streets as an indicator of success.
In the six weeks to the end of 2006, an average of 43 bodies
were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian
fighting threatened to turn into full-scale civil war.
That figure fell to four a day in 2008, in the period up to
February 12, said Qanbar, who heads the Baghdad security operation.
"Various enemy activities" had fallen by between 75 and 80% since the security plan was implemented, he said.
To demonstrate how life had improved, Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki toured parts of the city on Saturday, visiting Iraqi
forces and checkpoints.
"He wanted ... to send a message to the terrorists that
security in Baghdad is prevailing now," one official said.
Central to the success has been the erection of 3.5-metre high concrete walls that snake across the city.
The walls were designed to stop car bombings blamed on al- Qaeda that turned markets and open areas into killing fields.
Qanbar said he hoped the walls could be taken down "in the
coming months" and predicted the improved situation in Baghdad
would translate to greater security elsewhere.
The US military says attacks have fallen across Iraq by 60% since June on the back of security clampdowns and the
deployment of 30 000 extra American troops.
- Reuters
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