U.S., Iraqi Forces Stage Baghdad Raids

02/27/2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi forces staged raids in Baghdad's main Shiite militant stronghold Tuesday as part of politically sensitive forays into areas loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Troops have held back on broad sweeps through the teeming Sadr City slums since a major security operation began earlier this month, targeting militant factions and sectarian death squads that have ruled Baghdad's streets.

Al-Sadr withdrew his powerful Mahdi Army militia from checkpoints and bases under intense government pressure to let the neighbor-by-neighbor security sweeps move ahead. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and others have opposed extensive U.S.-led patrols through Sadr City, fearing a violent backlash could derail the security effort.

The pre-dawn raids appeared to highlight a strategy of pinpoint strikes in Sadr City rather than the flood of soldiers sent into some Sunni districts.

At least 16 people were arrested after U.S.-Iraqi commandos - using concussion grenades - stormed six homes, police said.

"My sons and wife were very terrified," complained Muhand Mihbas, 30, who said his brother and six cousins were taken in the sweeps. "Does the security plan mean arresting innocent people and scaring civilians at night?"

At a news conference, the Pentagon's No. 2 commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, declined to comment on whether there were special tactics for Sadr City. "We will go after anyone who we feel is working against the government of Iraq," he said.

"We will keep at this until the people feel safe in their neighborhoods," Odierno added.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told Al-Arabiya television that forces "will increase our operations in the coming days," but noted that the security crackdown in the capital should continue until at least October.

Bombings continued to hit across central Baghdad on Tuesday.

At the popular Kabab Abu Ali restaurant, a bomb left in a plastic bag exploded during the busy lunch hours, killing at least three people and injuring 13. About the same time, a suicide bomber struck an area filled with restaurants and ice cream parlors. At least five people were killed and 13 injured, police said.

Earlier, a bomb-rigged car exploded in a parking lot, killing at least two people, police said.

Battles and violence also raged in other parts of Iraq.

In the Wassit province, southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi forces engaged in intense fighting with suspected Sunni insurgents along a key highway, police said. Near the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber struck a factory, killing at least four people.

A separate suicide car bombing in Mosul killed at least six policemen and injured 38 police and civilians, said police said police Col. Aidan al-Jubouri.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, have arrested a suspect in the attempted assassination of Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, an aide said.

The aide said the arrest was made after reviewing security camera video from Monday's blast, which ripped through an awards ceremony at the ministry of public works and killed at least 10 people. Abdul-Mahdi received leg injuries and was briefly hospitalized.

The aide declined to give any further details about the arrest or the suspect. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The bomb was planted under a chair in the first row of the meeting hall - about six feet from the vice president, the aide said. Police initially thought the bomb was hidden under a speakers' podium.

"Investigations are being done to figure out how the attack was planned," Abdul-Mahdi told Furat television. Abdul-Mahdi is one of two vice presidents. The other, Tariq al-Hashemi, is Sunni.

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, remained in a Jordan hospital.

Talabani, from Iraq's Kurdish north, was taken to Amman after falling unconscious Sunday. He regained consciousness and his aides blamed the episode on fatigue and exhaustion.

His private physician, Dr. Yedkar Hikmat, would give no timetable on his discharge, saying only that rumors Talabani had heart problems were "categorically wrong."

In the southern Qadisiya province, meanwhile, Iraqi security forces said they captured 157 suspects linked to a shadowy armed cell called the Soldiers of Heaven, or Jund al-Samaa.

The group was involved in a fierce gunbattle last month with Iraqi forces who accused it of planning to kill Shiite clerics and others in the belief it would hasten the return of the "Hidden Imam" - a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the 9th century. Shiites believe he will return one day to bring justice.