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| Iraq |
| US, Iraqi forces launch crackdown on Shia stronghold |
| 2007-03-05 |
| (KUNA) -- US and Iraqi forces have launched a wide-scale crackdown in Sadr City, a Shia stronghold in Baghdad, on Sunday. The joint crackdown is part of a fresh Iraqi security plan called "Operation Law Enforcement". US and Iraqi forces were deployed at the entrances and suburbs of the largest district in east of Baghdad. Meanwhile, Sadr leaders were arrested in Najaf and Basra cities in a move that seemed to be the beginning of targeting Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr's key supporters. An Iraqi security source, on anonymity, told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that US forces stormed the houses of Sheikh Abdul-Razek al-Nadawi and Sheikh Asem Abdel-Nabi, key aides of al-Sadr in Najaf, as well as Sheikh Mortada al-Hajjaj, also al-Sadr's aide in Basra. British military forces, in the meantime, attacked an Iraqi intelligence center accused of collaborating with Iraqi insurgents and militants. Five Iraqi insurgents suspected of having had launched suspicious activities and attacks targeting civilians were arrested during the British operation, a British military spokesman was quoted as saying. It is the second British operation to attack an Iraqi military intelligence center and to release prisoners there. British forces accuse Basra intelligence department of being penetrated by insurgents of armed groups, chiefly Sadr-led Al-Mahdi Army. However, al-Sadr has recently enunciated support for Baghdad security plan, but a major debate has been raised at political circles over contradictory reports that he might leave Iraq for Iran. Sources close to al-Sadr denied such reports as baseless, but failed to reveal where al-Sadr was. Meanwhile, two people were killed and seven others were wounded in two bomb car explosions in Karada and Dawra on Sunday afternoon. Iraqi military forces managed to free the Iraqi Defence Ministry's Advisor Gen. Thamer Sultan, who was abducted on Saturday, and even arrested four of his kidnappers, an Iraqi military spokesman was quoted as saying. |
| Posted by:Fred |