BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's top security official called Saturday for a shift from major military operations to a "war of intelligence" to track down remaining extremist cells responsible for attacks such as those that killed 60 people in the past week in the Baghdad area. In an interview with The Associated Press, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said it appears that al-Qaida in Iraq is unleashing sleeper cells in a bid to reassert itself after being routed in recent U.S.-Iraqi military operations. He said the key to defeating the insurgents lies in better intelligence, not more wide-scale fighting. "I do believe that launching major military operations against al-Qaida is no longer needed and that there is a need to activate the intelligence side," al-Bolani said in an interview at his office in a former Saddam Hussein palace on the edge of Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone. "There are some al-Qaida sleeper cells who are refreshing their activities to prove that they are still able to conduct attacks," al-Bolani said. "The only challenges we are facing (from them) are the suicide bombers and car bombs."
Al-Bolani appealed for more intelligence support from U.S.-led forces, although he noted that "Iraqis have acquired good experience over the past years."
Iraqi forces also have evidence that hard-line Shiite militants are regrouping in Baghdad and some southern provinces like Maysan and Basra, he said. He was referring to small but well-organized groups that split off from the movement led by Shiite firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. officials believe those groups are funded and trained by Iran. The Iranians have denied any links to Shiite extremists in Iraq.
The splinter "special groups" continued attacks against U.S.-led forces even after the anti-U.S. cleric declared a unilateral cease-fire in 2007 and then disbanded his Mahdi Army last year. The two major factions are Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, and Kataeb Hezbollah.