The U.S. military issued a sober assessment Tuesday of the Baghdad security
crackdown, saying violence had decreased slightly but not to "the degree we
would like to see" in the two weeks since 75,000 Iraqi and American troops
flooded the capital.
The evaluation came as 18 more Iraqis fell victim to sectarian and insurgent
violence, including five people whose bodies were found dumped in Baghdad. The
U.S. military also announced the deaths of a Marine and three soldiers; three of
the deaths were west of the capital in volatile Anbar province, an insurgent
stronghold.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said the
overwhelming security operation launched two weeks ago to rein in violence in
Baghdad was moving more slowly than hoped.
"It's going to take some time. We do not see an upward trend. We ... see a
slight decrease but not of the degree we would like to see at this point," he
said at a news conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
However, Caldwell added, "we don't see this as turning into a civil war right
now."
U.S. officials hope the willingness of leading Sunni Arabs to withdraw
support for the insurgency will help heal the nation.
On Tuesday, an influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed the Shiite Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's 24-point reconciliation plan.
Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment, the state
agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, applauded the provision that
calls for the release of all prisoners who have not been charged with crimes.
He called on the government to implement the plan quickly, but emphasized
that it should include the disbanding of armed Shiite militias. Minority Sunnis
have accused Shiite-led militias, who have infiltrated the police and armed
forces of random detention, torture and killing.
"We bless this initiative," al-Samaraie said. "We see a glimmer of hope in
this plan, but at the same time we are noticing that some people are pushing the
armed groups to attack some areas in Baghdad, spreading terror and chaos in the
city in order to make this plan a failure. ... The government will not be able
to enforce the law while those militiamen consider themselves above the law."
Al-Maliki's plan is vague on this issue, saying only that the government
should address the "problem of sectarian militias and illegal armed groups
through political, economic and security measures." Al-Samaraie urged the
government to provide more details about the plan, which parliament will debate.
Al-Samaraie's endorsement came a day after key lawmakers said seven Sunni
Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce. The seven
groups do not include al-Qaida or Islamic terror groups. They are mostly made up
of former members or backers of Saddam Hussein's government, military or
security agencies.
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie said he had met
secretly in Jordan with exiled Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province to win
their support for al-Maliki's plan. Al-Zubaie said the meeting took place before
al-Maliki unveiled the plan Sunday.
"We have reached positive results so that they can try to persuade members of
the honorable resistance to join the political process," al-Zubaie told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview. Many Iraqis refer to those who have
attacked only foreign troops in Iraq as the "honorable resistance" because they
do not target Iraqis.
"There is no dialogue with those who targeted Iraqis," said al-Zubaie, a
member of the influential Sunni Arab Zubaa tribe.
He said the tribal leaders called for the release of detainees, an end to
military operations in Sunni areas and a halt to detentions.
The Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said 453 more detainees were released from
U.S. detention centers across Iraq, part of al-Maliki's plan to free 2,500 by
the end of June as a goodwill gesture.
In the first tangible step after al-Maliki's reconciliation plan was
announced, the Council of Ministers said it will reinstate the jobs of
government employees who were detained and recently released. It said the
government will consider their service uninterrupted when considering bonuses,
promotions and retirement privileges.
The ministers said they will allow freed students to return to school and
take final exams, and that their absence in the 2005-2006 academic year will not
be held against them.
Separately, the Iraqi High Tribunal announced that Saddam Hussein and six
members of his former regime will be put on trial Aug. 21 for a 1980s campaign
that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds and saw thousands of their villages
razed. The trial will be the second for Saddam and top officials of his Baath
Party regime. More trials over crimes committed during his 23-year dictatorship
are also expected.
An American soldier on a foot patrol south of Baghdad was killed Tuesday in a
bombing, and a Marine died Tuesday in fighting in Anbar province west of the
capital. The military also announced the deaths of two soldiers killed Monday in
Anbar fighting.
In other developments:
- A suicide car bomb struck a busy gas station in the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing at least three people and wounding 17.
- A parked car packed with explosives blew up at an open-air market in a
Shiite section of Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Dora neighborhood, killing three
people and wounding 10, police said.
- A university professor was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad's
upscale Mansour neighborhood. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific
Studies said it will stage a sit-in at all universities Wednesday to protest
kidnappings and violence against its employees.
- Gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying a tribal leader in Dujail, north of
Baghdad, killing him and four drivers.
- A tribal chief in the southeastern town of Amarah was seriously wounded in
an assassination attempt. Sheik Kadim al-Sebahawi's 22-year-old son died in the
attack.
