Militants strike Baghdad neighborhood patrols
Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:41pm EST
By Peter Graff
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen and bombers launched three
attacks on U.S.-backed neighborhood security patrols
in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least three of the
patrol members and wounding 17.
U.S. forces in Iraq have increasingly relied on
neighborhood patrols to keep peace in mainly Sunni
Arab parts of Iraq as part of a strategy that has
helped bring violence levels down dramatically over
the past several months.
But the patrol members, who are paid by U.S. forces
and not officially part of the Iraqi security forces,
have increasingly come under attack by militants.
In one incident on Saturday, bombers killed two patrol
members and wounded 10 in a strike on their
headquarters in the Adhamiya neighborhood of northern
Baghdad, until recently a Sunni Arab militant
stronghold.
Gunmen attacked a patrol in another northern area,
killing one patrol member and wounding four. In the
southern Doura neighborhood, another former Sunni
militant stronghold, gunmen wounded three patrol
members manning a checkpoint.
U.S. forces are trying to isolate al Qaeda fighters by
recruiting Sunni Arabs who have turned against the
radical Sunni Arab militants, and by launching regular
offensives with Iraqi forces against their hideouts.
The latest offensive started early on Saturday in the
Babel province south of Baghdad. It involves Iraqi
army soldiers and U.S. troops from the 4th Brigade
Combat Team, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, the
U.S. military said.
Operation Marne Roundup is focused on "flushing out al
Qaeda extremists and weapons smugglers operating" near
the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of
Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
U.S. commanders said last week the assault would
involve around 1,400 U.S. troops and will target Sunni
Islamist fighters in small hamlets and fishing
villages along the Euphrates River valley in Babel
province.
By Saturday afternoon, the troops had faced no
resistance as they moved to the target area, the
statement said.
PATROL UNITS
Suspected al Qaeda fighters have attacked both
Shi'ites and Sunnis in Babel. In one incident more
than a month ago, a suicide bomber killed a prominent
Sunni tribal leader involved in establishing
neighborhood patrol units in north Babel.
U.S. commanders credit the neighborhood police units
as being one of the main reasons why the number of
attacks across Iraq has fallen 60 percent since June.
U.S. officials call the patrols "concerned local
citizens" and pay some 50,000 patrol members about $10
a day. They are expected to provide their own weapons
but are issued ID cards and simple uniforms such as
reflector vests or shoulder belts.
Washington acknowledges some of the patrol members may
have had links to insurgent groups but says they are
screened to weed out those responsible for attacks.
The Shi'ite-led government was initially lukewarm over
the prospect of men it once regarded as enemies being
permitted to take up arms, but now says it will take
over the program from the U.S. military and put most
of the patrols on its payroll.
(Additional reporting by Alaa Shahine and Aws Qusay;
editing by Robert Woodward)
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and disclosure of relevant interests.
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
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dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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