U.S. Launches New Offensive in Iraq

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Associated Press | July 17, 2007

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops launched a new offensive south of Baghdad against insurgents Monday, aiming to cut off another staging ground for attacks on the capital, the military said. Bombings and mortar fire in the morning killed at least nine people in the city.

For the past month, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been waging offensives in the region southeast of Baghdad and in the city of Baqouba, 35 miles to the northeast.

At the same time, the U.S. military has been carrying out a stepped-up security sweep in Baghdad, hoping to bring calm to the capital and boost the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The military said in a statement that the new sweep code-named Marne Avalanche was "aimed at preventing the movement of weapons, munitions and insurgents into Baghdad."

It did not give an exact location of the offensive, but in recent days U.S. commanders have said they plan new operations to cut off an insurgent supply route southwest of the city, running from western Anbar province.

A string of attacks hit Baghdad on Monday morning. In the deadliest, a roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed in the Boub al-Sham area on the city's northeast outskirts, killing five soldiers and wounding nine others, an army officer said.

For the second day in a row, a car bomb hit the central district of Karradah. The blast went off near Masbah Square, killing one person, wounding three others and leaving nearby shops burned, a police official said. On Sunday, a car bomb went off about a half-mile away, killing 10 people.

Also, mortar shells hit a residential area in Abu Dhsir, a south Baghdad Shiite enclave surrounded by Sunni neighborhood. The attack killed three civilians and wounded six others, said another police official.

On Sunday, 22 bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in various locations of Baghdad, apparently the latest victims of sectarian violence, police said. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the reports.

Meanwhile, with parliament scheduled to convene Monday, Iraqi politicians were trying to end a pair of boycotts of the legislature that are holding up work on crucial reforms sought by Washington.

The top Sunni party, the Iraqi Accordance Party has refused to attend parliament to protest the removal of the Sunni speaker of parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. The Shiite-dominated parliament voted June 11 to remove al-Mashhadani because of erratic behavior and comments that frequently embarrassed al-Maliki's government.

Sunnis also want the government to set aside an arrest warrant against the Sunni culture minister, accused of ordering an assassination attempt against a fellow Sunni legislator.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, the Accordance Front leader, met Sunday with al-Maliki to discuss the Sunni boycott. After the meeting, al-Dulaimi's spokesman, Muhannad al-Issawi, said that the boycott would continue and if the speaker were replaced, the decision should be made by the Sunnis and "not imposed" by Shiites and Kurds.

But al-Dulaimi was more optimistic about a settlement that would allow the Sunnis to return.

"Things are, God willing, on their way to be resolved," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. "The pending issue of al-Mashhadani and that of the minister of culture will be solved by the end of the week, and things will go back to their normal course."

Hassan al-Suneid, a Shiite lawmaker close to al-Maliki, also said a deal was near under which al-Mashhadani could return to his post briefly, then be permitted to retire.

Meanwhile, a member of the Shiite Sadr bloc said his faction would meet Monday with parliament leaders to discuss their own boycott, launched to protest delays in rebuilding a Shiite shrine in Samarra that was damaged by a bomb in February 2006.

"We will end our boycott when our conditions are accepted," lawmaker Naser al-Saidi told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television.

Those conditions include a plan to rebuild the shrine and secure the road from Baghdad to Samarra, which passes through Sunni insurgent areas.

The absence of the two major blocs has delayed work on such key benchmark legislation as the oil bill, constitutional reform, scheduling local elections and restoring many former Saddam Hussein loyalists to government jobs.

Those are among the 18 benchmarks that Washington uses to measure progress toward national reconciliation. A White House report last week found that Iraqis had made only limited progress, fueling calls for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Al-Maliki told reporters Saturday the Iraqi army and police were capable of maintaining security when American troops leave. "We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want," al-Maliki said.

Those comments appeared to undercut President Bush's contention that the 155,000 U.S. troops must remain in Iraq because the Iraqis are not capable of providing for their own security.

But on Sunday al-Maliki adviser Yassin Majid told the AP that the prime minister meant that efforts to bolster Iraq's security forces would continue "side-by-side with the withdrawal."

Majid urged the United States to continue building up Iraqi forces so they would be ready whenever the White House orders a troop withdrawal.

Al-Maliki's remarks appeared to reflect Iraqi frustration with American complaints that the country's religious and ethnic communities have failed to move fast enough to enact power-sharing deals - the key to long-term stability after more than four years of war.

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