BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki proclaimed on Friday that Al Qaeda had been routed in Baghdad thanks to a security plan launched a year ago, and would soon be defeated throughout the country.| Let's not get too cocky ... |
The prime minister thanked ‘all those who helped make the security plan a success and who saved the country from the miserable situation it was in due to Al Qaeda’s violence and terrorism.’
To mark the anniversary of the launch of Fardh Al Qanoon, he laid a wreath at the monument to the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad at a ceremony attended by the defence and interior ministers and other Iraqi officials. The launch of Fardh Al Qanoon coincided with the start of a ‘surge’ of an extra 30,000 US troops in Iraq, which has helped reduce the number of bombings in the capital, while the streets are no longer theatres for violent clashes between insurgents and the security forces.