Report: Iraqi Army Kills 30 Militants

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070106/D8MFVMI80.html

eport: Iraqi Army Kills 30 Militants
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Jan 6, 2:40 PM (ET)

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that Iraqi forces would launch a new effort - with U.S. troops in a supporting role - to wrest control of Baghdad's neighborhoods from militias and other sectarian killers.

A firefight in a Sunni neighborhood of central Baghdad between Iraqi army forces and militants apparently marked the start of the drive to contain Sunni insurgents and Shiite death squads. According to a state television report, 30 militants were killed and eight arrested - including five Sudanese - in the insurgent-held neighborhood that housed Iraqi government and military officials during Saddam Hussein's rule.

"The Baghdad security plan will not offer a safe shelter for outlaws regardless of their ethnic and political affiliations, and we will punish anyone who hesitates to implement orders because of his ethnic and political background," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said earlier in the day in a speech at the 85th anniversary celebration of the Iraqi army.

Hours before the firefight was reported, police said they had found 27 bodies in same area, along Sunni-dominated Haifa Street about two miles north of the heavily fortified Green Zone, site of the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government and thousands of American troops.

FULL story at link.

[sweettater]

1. 30 down and

how many more to go? acouple of million? but we're making progress. :bounce:

[rodeodance]

2. Last summer the U.S. military and Iraqi army flooded the capital with 12,000

Last summer the U.S. military and Iraqi army flooded the capital with 12,000 additional troops to the same purpose. By October, the U.S. military spokesman said the operation had not met expectations and the situation was disheartening. The last half of 2006 was one of the most violent periods in the center and west of the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Any serious effort to curb the chaos and violence in the capital would put not only American forces but al-Maliki's Iraqi army in direct confrontation with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The militants are gaining more and more ground as they kill Sunni residents and drive others from their neighborhoods in an explosion of vengeance that began after the Feb. 22 bombing by al-Qaida in Iraq militants of the Golden Dome mosque, an important Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.

Also Saturday, al-Maliki continued to defend his government's execution of Saddam, amid speculations that the former leader's execution chamber was infiltrated by militiamen who taunted Saddam in his final moments of life.

[Kagemusha]

3. If it's a Sunni neighborhood, forget the death squads, it's against Sunnis

That's pretty obvious to me but the AP manages to softpedal it. It's not a heck of a lot of pain to the Maliki government to kick the Sunnis around. Wake me up when they shoot and kill Sadrists.