Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Arab Times:

WASHINGTON: A US Commander in Iraq said Wednesday al-Qaeda leadership in Iraq bolstered its foreign fighter facilitation network in recent weeks ahead of September’s Washington deadline to evaluate US troops surge in Iraq. “We have seen in the last six weeks indications that al-Qaeda has actually sent more people into Iraq to try to shore up the al-Qaeda network in Iraq,” said Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Effects in the Multinational Force in Iraq Brigadier General Kevin Bergner. Speaking via teleconference from Iraq with bloggers in a Pentagon round table, Bergner talked about “some tactical momentum achieved” in the month of July and the first week of August where coalition forces captured or killed around 18 senior al-Qaeda leaders in July including the most senior Iraqi national in al-Qaeda leadership in Iraq Khaled al-Mashhadani.

The US Commander referred as well to what happened last Sunday in Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad last Sunday as local citizens helped the Iraqi army capture terrorists who sought sanctuary in the Mosque and the result was finding “a large weapons cache” in its backyard. “We know that al-Qaeda still has the ability to conduct these barbaric spectacular attacks,” noting that the US military will “keep the pressure on every aspect of the al-Qaeda operations and their affiliates.” Bergner said that al-Qaeda leaders “are not able to maintain the same coherence in their command and control and their planning and direction of operations.” “They spend more of their time having to regenerate and re-establish the leadership connections,” he added. “We continue to mount operations against extremist militias frequently supported by Iran’s Qods Force,” said Bergner noting that the military operation by the coalition forces earlier today in Sadr City Eastern Baghdad was completed, killing 30 militants and detaining 12 others. The US Commander said “there is a steady development at local level as security improves” crediting the surge for that matter and admitting “it is still a hard fight.”

Meeting

Iraq’s deputy foreign minister urged his country’s neighbors Wednesday for genuine support and said he hoped a meeting here on Iraq’s deteriorating security would produce real results instead of broken promises. But key regional power player Saudi Arabia was absent from the first meeting of the newly created Security Committee for Coordination and Cooperation on Iraq. A US delegation, headed by Washington’s top diplomat in Syria, Charge d’Affaires Michael Corbin, attended the two-day meeting, as well as representatives of Iraq’s other neighbors, including Iran, the Arab League, Bahrain and Egypt and UN Security Council permanent members. But Saudi Arabia’s decision not to participate cast doubt on how effective the meeting would be. Its absence was likely due to its bad relations with the Syrian government. Saudi officials would not comment, but the kingdom and Damascus have been deeply divided over Syria’s ties to Iran and the Shiite Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

A Sunni Muslim country, Saudi Arabia also has been keeping Iraq’s Shiite-led government at arms length — but under US pressure to be more cooperative, it is now considering reopening an embassy in Baghdad.

“We hope that this meeting will not be a routine one and will be effective and will come up with effective results that achieve the goal of supporting it in its current dilemma,” Iraq’s Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said Wednesday.

“Iraq expects real and genuine support in passing through this dilemma and suffering of terrorism and violence,” he added.

British Embassy official Irfan Siddiq said no specific “demands” were put on the table the meeting but expressed hope it would end with “positive and tangible results, not just talk.” He ruled out any Britain-Syria bilateral meetings on the meeting’s sidelines.

Iraq and its neighbors have held a series of meetings in recent years in which Baghdad has repeatedly urged them to help increase cooperation to prevent foreign fighter infiltration, end violence and restore stability to the war-torn country, while the Sunni Arab nations have pushed the Shiite government to reconcile with Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority. The commission was created in an attempt to step up security cooperation, which so far has seen little progress despite Arab promises.

Hesham Youssef, the Arab League’s representative at the meeting, repeated Arab demands that Iraqis reconcile among themselves if the country wants peace and security.

“The Arab League believes that national conciliation in Iraq is key to solve Iraq’s problems and maintains its unity and achieve stability,” he said. “Shortcomings that have blocked the building of armed and security forces on professional bases should be dealt with.”
Youssef described the atmosphere after the first session as “positive.”

Syria’s interior minister said his country has tightened measures on its border with Iraq to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into its eastern neighbor.

The US has repeatedly accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq to join anti-American insurgents. Syria denies the charges saying it is impossible to control the long desert border.

Killed

US-led forces swooped into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on Wednesday, killing 32 suspected militants and detaining 12 others in fighting and an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks from Iran. Iraqi police and witnesses said nine civilians were killed in the attack, which occurred hours before Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran for his second visit in less than a year. Iraq, which like Iran is majority Shiite, has managed a difficult balancing act between Tehran and Washington since the US-led invasion in 2003, trying to maintain good relations with its powerful neighbor while not angering the Americans. Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, clamped a three-day driving ban on the capital and erected new checkpoints as thousands of Shiite pilgrims began their annual trek toward a mosque in northern Baghdad to mark the anniversary of the death of one of Shiite Islam’s key saints. The military said the raid targeted fighters from breakaway factions of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army who smuggle arms from Iran and facilitate the travel of Iraqi militants to Iran for training.

“The individuals detained and the terrorists killed during the raid are believed to be members of a cell of a special groups terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq into Iran for terrorist training,” the military said. The statement said the main suspect in the raid was a liaison between Iraqi fighters and Iran’s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training the militants. Tehran has denied allegations that it is supporting the violence in Iraq. The military account of the raid said US and Iraqi ground forces came under sporadic small-arms fire as they targeted a group of buildings in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite district in eastern Baghdad. The raiders killed two armed men believed to be lookouts, then detained 12 rogue militia fighters, the military said.

Attack helicopters and warplanes then struck after spotting a vehicle and a large group of armed men on foot who were trying to attack the ground forces. An estimated 30 militants were killed in the air attack, according to the statement. The statement was issued after Iraqi police and witnesses in Sadr City said a bombardment by US helicopters and armored vehicles killed nine civilians, including two women, and wounded six others. The police officer and witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, also said 12 people were detained. Men and young boys wept over wooden coffins covered with blankets before they were placed atop vehicles, while women shrouded in black blamed the Americans for attacking civilians. It was one of the largest in a series of strikes against rogue Shiite militias, which US commanders have said are responsible for an increasing number of attacks against American forces.