By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA,
Associated Press Writers 1 minute ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq ‘s prime minister has told
Shiite militiamen to surrender their weapons or face an all-out assault, part of
a commitment President Bush outlined on Wednesday to bring violence under
control with a more aggressive Iraqi Army and 21,500 additional American troops.
Bush laid out his new plan to quell violence in
and around the Iraqi capital in a televised address to the nation Wednesday
night. In earlier operations, the president said, "political and sectarian
interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods
that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence.
Before Bush spoke, a senior Shiite legislator
and close al-Maliki adviser said the prime minister had warned that no militias
would be spared in the crackdown.
Bush warned that the U.S. expected al-Maliki to
keep those promises.
Al-Maliki on Saturday announced that his
government would implement a new security plan for Baghdad, which consists of
neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweeps by Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops.
Although al-Maliki withdrew political
protection from the Mahdi Army, there was no guarantee the Shiite fighters would
be easily routed from the large and growing area of Baghdad under their control.
Sunni militants, meanwhile, have put up fierce
resistance in the five days since al-Maliki announced his new security
initiative for Baghdad.
The neighborhood is only about 2 1/2 miles
north of the Green Zone, site of the Iraqi government headquarters, the U.S.
Embassy and base for thousands of American soldiers.
Bush said the U.S. will send 21,500 more troops
— 17,500 of them to help pacify Baghdad,
In preparation for the new security plan, the
Iraqi military will bring two brigades from northern Iraq, a region largely
populated by Kurds, and one from the south.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died, many of
them in the capital in the past year — after the war became a religious conflict
between Sunnis and Shiites. Sectarian violence began after the February bombing
of a major Shiite shrine by al-Qaida in Iraq.
Al-Maliki has not commented on the Bush
administration‘s plans to create a set of benchmarks to measure the Iraqi
government‘s progress on improving security.
Washington wants the prime minister to come up
with a plan to equitably share the country‘s oil wealth, ease restrictions on
former Baath Party members and hold provincial elections — steps regarded as
critically important to drawing Sunnis into the political process.
An Iraqi general, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details of the plan, said a
mainly Kurdish force would be sent into the Sadr City slum in northeast Baghdad,
which serves as headquarters of the Mahdi Army.
The general said Kurds, who are Sunni but not
Arab, were being used against the Shiite militia because soldiers from other
Iraqi units were likely to refuse to fight fellow Shiites. An estimated 80
percent of Iraq‘s army is Shiite.
Under the new security plan, the general said,
U.S. and Iraqi troops will sweep Baghdad neighborhoods in an effort to dislodge
the Mahdi Army, as well as Sunni extremists — including al-Qaida in Iraq and two
of its allied groups, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Omar Brigade.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said Iraqi commanders
will be put in charge of each of nine city districts. Each commander will
operate independently of Iraqi military headquarters.
Al-Maliki has named Lt. Gen. Aboud Gambar, an
Iraqi general who was taken prisoner of war by U.S. forces during the 1991 Gulf
war, as the overall commander.
Gambar, a Shiite, will have two assistants, one
from the police and one from the army, Iraqi military officers said on condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.
Gambar will report directly to al-Maliki.
The Americans plan to put 400 to 600 U.S.
soldiers in each district as a backup force, a senior Bush administration
official said Wednesday. Others will be held in reserve throughout the capital
to deploy quickly on the request of Iraqi commanders.
One senior U.S. official said al-Maliki agreed
to stop protecting the Mahdi Army under pressure from both the U.S. and his
fellow Iraqis. In a conference call with U.S. reporters, the official said the
al-Maliki "plan will work" because it frees his military from political and
sectarian influence.
The latest drive to pacify Baghdad is at least
the fourth since the war began. All have had only limited success, with
insurgents and militants swiftly returning to neighborhoods after U.S. and Iraqi
military forces departed.
In the most recent of these operations, Iraq‘s
army fielded fewer troops than promised. That made it impossible to maintain
control of areas that U.S. forces had cleared of gunmen.
Police on Wednesday reported that at least 92
people had died violently or been found dead across the country.
In a single deadly attack, Sunni gunmen opened
fire on a convoy of buses carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims home from the hajj,
the annual pilgrimage to Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia, according to police
and Akeel al-Khazaali, the governor of the southern province of Karbala.
At least 11 people were killed and 14 wounded.
Al-Khazaali told Iraqi state television that some of the slain pilgrims had been
severely burned in the ambush, which occurred about 75 miles west of the Shiite
holy city of Karbala.
Police said 60 bodies, many of them victims of
torture, were found in Baghdad Wednesday. Seven more were discovered in the
northern city of Mosul. Shootings, mortar attacks and bombings at various places
around Iraq claimed another 14 lives.
The U.S. military announced Wednesday that four
more American soldiers died of combat wounds in Iraq. A Task Force Lightning
soldier assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division died Tuesday
from a gunshot wound sustained in the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.
Two more soldiers died the same day in Iraq‘s
western Anbar province. One was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Headquarters Group, and one was assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division.
A 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
Soldier was killed by a roadside bomb outside of Fallujah.
