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Iraq Update: Feb. 14, 2007 February 14, 2007 18 05 GMT U.S. Gen. David Petraeus arrived in Baghdad on Feb. 9 to take charge of U.S. forces already sweeping several Sunni neighborhoods and enforcing stricter control on some Baghdad roads. There has been some resistance to the Baghdad security plan, particularly against a coalition raid in Arab Jabour that forced coalition forces to call in airstrikes on Feb. 8, but most fighting has been muted compared to the fighting for Haifa Street in January. Since Feb. 7, just a single U.S. soldier has been confirmed killed in Baghdad. Diehard Sunni insurgents know they are a target of coalition forces and have continued their campaign against the Shiite community over the past week. Two bombs in Baghdad's largely Shiite Shorja market on Feb. 12 killed or wounded more than 200 people; a suicide truck bomber killed or wounded more than 50 near Baghdad College on Feb. 13; and Sunni forces also attacked the convoy of a member of the Shiite Fadhila Party, Ammar Tuuma, in western Baghdad on Feb. 8. On the other hand, there has already been a decrease in overt violence in Baghdad on the part of Shiite militias. The mortar-fire exchanges between Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods ceased over the past week, as have Shiite raids on Sunni mosques and neighborhoods in Baghdad. However bodies continue to turn up across Baghdad, possibly indicative of reprisal killings by Shiite death squads. Meanwhile, reports originating with senior U.S. officials have raised the possibility that radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran, and in fact might have been there for several weeks. These reports have not been verified, but such a development could alter the political and security dynamics in Iraq significantly. Meanwhile, over the past week, the U.S. military continued its offensive against Shiite militia leaders in Baghdad. Coalition forces arrested Shiite militia financier and Deputy Minister of Health Hakim al-Zamili at his office in the Ministry of Health in Rusafa on Feb. 8. Al-Zamili is suspected of employing militia fighters and selling health services and equipment in return for millions of dollars that he later funneled to Shiite militias. Coalition forces also stepped up pressure on Iranian assets in Iraq over the past week. Three Iranians were detained trying to sneak across the Iraqi border near Al Kut on Feb. 7; and the head of the Baghdad Security Plan, Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, said Feb. 13 that the Iraqi government would soon shut the border with Iran and Syria for 72 hours in an effort to aid operations in Baghdad. Coalition commanders on Feb. 11 presented to journalists what they said were improvised explosive devices -- specifically, explosively formed penetrators -- and other weapons, allegedly manufactured in Iran and smuggled into Iraq by the elite Quds Brigade of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Some 100 HS50 Steyr Mannlicher .50 calibre sniper rifles -- which were shipped legally to Iran from Austria -- turned up in raids in Baghdad on Feb. 12 and 13. These sniper rifles are extremely powerful, capable of penetrating body armor and lightly armed vehicles. Within 45 days of Austria's initial shipment to Iran early in 2006, a U.S. soldier was shot in an armored vehicle by one of these rifles. Despite some progress in stemming the violence in Baghdad, much of the rest of Iraq is far from being under control. Over the weekend, coalition forces swept the towns of Buhriz in Diyala province and al-Duluiyah in Salah ad Din province for insurgents, who had gained control of local government and built up arms caches. Resistance to the coalition was particularly strong in Buhriz, where clashes with insurgents on Feb. 11 killed or wounded 30 people. After sweeps and raids there, the U.S. military continued its strategy of isolating cleared towns by surrounding Buhriz and al-Duluiyah with checkpoints. Though relatively inactive in Baghdad over the past week, Shiite forces also contributed to the chaotic situation outside of Baghdad. A Shiite militia from Baghdad attacked a Sunni community in the village of Rufayaat near Balad on Feb. 8 and killed at least 14 people. Such retributive violence is a sign that the Shia only have so much patience in the face of continued Sunni suicide bombings against civilian targets. +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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