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Iraqis see early hope in Baghdad

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 17, 2007

BAGHDAD - As a military offensive seeks to bring Baghdad from the brink of anarchy, a top Iraqi security officer tried Friday to measure its early stages using the grim logic of a place with daily bloodshed: by counting the bodies arriving at the morgue.

Ten corpses were collected off the streets - apparently all victims of the city's lawless jumble of sectarian payback. The daily body tally recently has often been 40 or more, excluding major bombings, said Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi.

This was the basis for an upbeat message by Moussawi, a spokesman for the joint U.S.-Iraqi security sweep that began this week. But his American counterparts remain much more guarded.

"I would say that it is way too early to establish any trends," said Lt. Col. Chris Garver, a U.S. military spokesman. "We've just started to focus our operations. We have months to go to see if we are going to succeed or not."

The contrasting outlooks cut across the entire mission, dubbed Operation Law and Order, which seeks to reclaim the streets. Powerful militias and freelance vigilantes have carved Baghdad into fiefdoms and made even daily errands a gamble that could end with a car bombing or gunfire.

The Iraqis are eager to show clear progress to boost the leadership of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. U.S. commanders, however, are approaching the neighbor-by-neighbor sweep as a campaign without quick victories.

"We are just at the beginning stages," Garver said.

But evidence of the offensive against militants appeared around the country.

Borders to Iran and Syria have been temporarily sealed in attempts to foil suspected supply routes. In Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, U.S. forces are under sharply escalating attacks from Sunni Muslim insurgents - suggesting that some groups have shifted from Baghdad.

U.S. military officials said demolition experts destroyed a bombmaking factory they linked to the al-Qaida in Iraq faction in Salman Pak, just southwest of Baghdad.

But doubt was cast on another reported blow to al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Interior Ministry said that leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded and an aide killed Thursday near Balad.

Garver, the U.S. spokesman, later said the Pentagon had no information that al-Masri was hit. The al-Masri deputy reported killed, identified as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai, was detained last week and remains in jail, an unnamed Iraqi army officer said.

Fast Facts:

Developments

Early deployment: The Pentagon said Friday it is sending an Army division headquarters staff of about 1,000 soldiers to Baghdad three months ahead of schedule, a move intended to improve the Army's ability to command and control the thousands of extra combat troops that President Bush has ordered to Iraq. The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters staff will deploy from Fort Stewart, Ga., next month.

Video blocked: A British coroner reluctantly agreed Friday to a U.S. request not to show in open court a cockpit video capturing the horrified reaction of two American pilots in Iraq after they fired on British troops. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he was doing so only in the interest of speeding up the inquest into the death of Lance Cpl. Matty Hull, who was killed when his convoy was strafed by a U.S. warplane in southern Iraq on March 28, 2003.

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 00:50:23]