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General:Baghdad a 'must-win'

With daily attacks increasing despite last month's crackdown, the tipping point for Iraq is near.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 21, 2006

BAGHDAD - More than a month after the beginning of a highly publicized security crackdown and the killing of militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the number of daily attacks in Baghdad has actually increased, and an American general said extremists were preparing "an all-out assault" on the capital in a decisive battle for the future of Iraq.

In the 101 days before the security crackdown, an average of 23.8 attacks occurred daily. In the first 35 days of the operation, which began June 14, there was an average of 25.2 attacks a day.

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued his strongest call for an end to Shiite-Sunni bloodletting, urging all Iraqis to wake up to the "danger threatening the future of the country" and stand "side-by-side against it."

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman, said there had been an average of 34 attacks a day involving U.S. and Iraqi forces in and around the capital since Friday.

"We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world," Caldwell said. "The only way we're going to be successful in Baghdad is to get the weapons off the streets."

Caldwell said insurgents were streaming into the capital for "an all-out assault against the Baghdad area."

"Clearly the death squad elements, the terrorist elements, know that Baghdad is a must-win for them," he said. "Whoever wins the Baghdad area, whoever is able to bring peace and security to that area, is going to set the conditions to stabilize this country."

Caldwell's comments were among the most frank by a senior American military official about the grave crisis facing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's 2-month-old national unity government.

U.S. officials have long pointed to relative peace in many of Iraq's 18 provinces, dismissing the insurgency as a problem limited to Baghdad and sparsely populated Sunni Arab areas to the west and north.

However, Baghdad is the country's major transportation hub, the center of political and economic power, and home to more than 20 percent of the population. Its religiously and politically mixed population makes it a natural battleground for control of the country.

"Baghdad is a must-win not only for the prime minister, but for al-Qaida in Iraq," Caldwell said. "Without Baghdad's centralized access to power brokers, Baghdad's large, diverse population, its financial resources, the terrorists elements will lose here in this country."

Although the effectiveness of Zarqawi's organization after his death has yet to be tested, it is clear much of the violence in Baghdad is unrelated to foreign militants. Most of the recent killing in Baghdad involves Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents trading attacks with Shiite death squads.

The fighting has led prominent Sunni Arab and Shiite leaders to say their country was gripped by an undeclared civil war.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani issued a rare statement Thursday, saying the time has come for "all those who value the unity and future of this country" to "exert maximum efforts to stop the bloodletting."

Sistani, a longtime voice of moderation, urged Iraqis against "falling into the trap of sectarian and ethnic strife," which he said will only delay the departure of foreign troops.

"I repeat my call today to all Iraqis of different sects and ethnic groups to be aware of the danger threatening the future of the country and stand side-by-side against it," he said.

In the statement, which included his personal signature and stamp, Sistani called on people to stop targeting innocent civilians with attacks and start talking with the elected government.

Maliki last month unveiled a much-heralded security plan for Baghdad, including up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets, more checkpoints and raids in neighborhoods where violence is high.

But with surging attacks in the capital - including kidnappings of Iraqi officials - leading politicians from Shiite and Sunni parties have declared the plan a failure. The United Nations said that about 6,000 civilians were killed in May and June.

About 50 people were killed Thursday in attacks nationwide, police said. They included a U.S. Marine killed in Anbar province and 12 people who died in a car bombing near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb targeting a police patrol blew up in front of Ishtar, one of the city's best known ice cream shops. The explosion killed seven people and wounded 18, most of whom were civilians eating ice cream at the end of a hot day.

Across Iraq, the number of Iraqis registered as refugees has jumped by 30,000 since the beginning of July, according to the Iraqi Migration Ministry. A total of 162,000 refugees have registered with the ministry since Feb. 22, when the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the northern town of Samarra triggered the current phase of intense sectarian fighting.

"We consider this to be a dangerous sign," said ministry spokesman Sattar Nowruz.

Also ...

ACCUSED SOLDIER: Federal prosecutors have asked for a three-month delay in the arraignment of a former soldier charged with raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and three family members. The motion, filed Wednesday, says that an indictment in Steven Green's case is not likely until October and that Green's lawyers do not oppose delaying his arraignment until November. Green, 21, pleaded not guilty in an initial court appearance.

HUSSEIN TRIAL: Saddam Hussein and three others have been on a hunger strike for nearly two weeks, demanding better security for defense attorneys, but they are in good health, said Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, spokesman for detainee operations. The other three have not been identified but are believed to be co-defendants in the ongoing trial in the deaths of Shiite Muslims in 1982. They all have been drinking coffee and water with nutrients.

Information from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 23:48:50]