Iraqis cautious over Baghdad security crackdown

BAGHDAD, Aug 26: US commanders have declared their security crackdown in Baghdad a contest for the future of the entire country, but many in the capital have a hard time believing anything can save their city from further bloodshed.

General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the W Asia, said this week Operation Together Forward has brought ''great progress,'' noting an extra 12,000 US and Iraqi troops on the street had eased insurgent and sectarian violence.

But boosting morale on the streets, where tracts of Baghdad have become ghost towns even by day, will require a lot more than an uptick in statistics on rebel deaths and weapons seized.

Row upon row of shops stand shuttered along the main street of Mansour, once a thriving, upscale commercial district with salons, boutiques, jewellery stores and pastry shops all a few streets away from most of Baghdad's embassies.

Al Sa'aa, one of the city's most popular restaurants, is still operating there. But its staff say gunmen have killed seven people on their street in the last two weeks alone, prompting more people to padlock their businesses.

Down the street, grocery store owner Alaa Mohammed explains why he fled to Syria, before coming back in the hope of getting his business going again: ''Gunmen just walked up to that toy store and killed the owner and his brother. I saw them. They were in normal clothes. It was very easy,'' he said before pointing to three other shops whose owners have been slain.

US troops have taken control of four of the previously most violent districts, hoping to provide a basis on which Iraqis can take charge.

But it is unclear whether militiamen and rebels have quit or are just keeping their heads down briefly. Residual attacks target mostly U.S.-led coalition forces and the Iraqi police or army, US Army Col. Robert Scurlock, a ground commander in Iraq, told reporters in Washington by video link.

The three-week-old clampdown has not convinced shopkeeper Imad Fadil he will be safe anytime soon.

In the last week a roadside bomb blew up near an Iraqi army patrol and a teenage plumber was shot dead, all within 10 metres of his store in Hay al-Jamiaa, which is near Sunni insurgent strongholds taken over by US and Iraqi forces.

''I have not seen any of these American or Iraqi troops. Where is our government?'' he asked.

UNDER PRESSURE

Operation Together Forward is designed to show Iraqis that their local forces are taking charge. But police commandos stationed between two rebel strongholds seemed in little mood to fight insurgents who have killed thousands of their comrades. ''We have good training from the Americans. But we are often attacked. The terrorists fire mortars or shoot at us,'' said Ali Abdul Ghani, pointing to rows of houses opposite his sandbagged checkpoint and which provide cover for the guerrillas.

''This morning they fired on us during a patrol and I shot back.

Now I have to pay for some bullets because I fired too many. It's an Interior Ministry rule. I just want to go back to my hometown,'' he complained.

The conflict has crept to neighbourhoods once known for bustling restaurants and ice cream parlours. Palm tree trunks have been set up as road blocks against suicide bombers in cars.

''At night we have our own patrols and in the morning car bombs usually explode between 7 and 8, so people don't go out,'' said Seif al-Husseini, a computer specialist outside his family's villa in the once prosperous district of Zayouna.

Iraqi nerves have been especially frayed since militiamen stormed the mainly Sunni district of Hay al-Jihad on July 9, killing dozens of people and bolstering sectarian tensions.

Operation Forward Together has dramatically reduced violence in some particularly tense neighborhoods.

The number of attacks in Baghdad has fallen 41 percent since the crackdown began from an average of 52 daily last month, Scurlock said. Murders in the Ameriyah area dropped from 29 in the 30 days before the crackdown to three since, he said.

Violence has also dropped in the southern Doura district, site of some of the most savage sectarian killings over the past few months.

Waiting his turn, minibus driver Mohammad Daoud cheerfully noted that gunbattles were rarer in the area. But like many Iraqis, he doubts local forces can bring security on their own.

''As long as the Americans are here it is fine,'' he said. ''If they leave it to the Iraqi police the killing will just return.''

REUTERS