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| Iraq |
| Abizaid praises Iraqi troop performance in post-Samarra bloodshed |
| 2006-03-05 |
| A top U.S. general said he was "very, very pleased" with the response of the Iraqi armed forces in containing the recent sectarian bloodshed, disputing critics who said too little was done to quell attacks that killed more than 500 people in the past two weeks. Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, spent two days in Baghdad meeting with top Iraqi leaders after the Feb. 22 bombing of a golden-domed Shiite shrine in Samarra triggered reprisal attacks against Sunnis that pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Iraqi security forces blunted the sectarian killing with an extraordinary daytime curfew in four flashpoint provinces last weekend, followed by a driving ban in Baghdad on Friday. Abizaid praised "the reaction of the Iraqi armed forces during the aftermath of the bombing in Samarra." He warned that more such attacks were likely but added, "We believe that the Iraqi armed forces, in conjunction with the multinational force, can deal with any security problem that may arise." That was a more upbeat assessment than the one given Thursday by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, who told reporters that Iraqi police and army units had performed "generally well, not uniformly well." Casey said the mostly Shiite security forces sometimes gave armed sectarian fighters free rein in Baghdad and Basra, where reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics took days to contain. U.S. officials have expressed concern about the role of private militias in the violence. But Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Saturday that the government was making progress integrating militiamen into its structures. Some are joining the security forces, but most will be given jobs in government departments, while those older than 50 will retire, he said at a news briefing. The questions remained whether the militiamen would comply and whether the government would get tougher on enforcing the integration policy. Sunni Arab politicians accuse militiamen operating within the Interior Ministry ranks of kidnapping and killing their people under the cover of fighting the Sunni-dominated insurgency. Jabr denies the accusations. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |