Key political leaders propose committees to help set up checkpoints and monitor police in Baghdad. The U.S. calls it a `significant step.'
By Solomon Moore
Los Angeles Times, 03 October 2006
BAGHDAD — Leaders of Iraq's major political blocs announced a plan Monday to create local committees of clerics, tribal leaders and military officers to help quell violence in the capital.
The committees would have no police powers but would work with Iraqi authorities to set up checkpoints and identify dangers in the community, and advise police officers on other security issues.
The government also announced that a central committee for peace and security would monitor police performance in Baghdad's neighborhoods and report abuses.
The plan, unveiled by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in a televised news conference, appeared to gain broad support among Iraq's major Sunni and Shiite political blocs Monday night.
Sunni Arab insurgent groups and Shiite Muslim militias, some tied to Iraq's leading political parties, are blamed for most of the slayings in the capital, which has been a sectarian battleground for more than a year.
"The agreement between the leaders of the political blocs is going to be activated tonight, and our brothers will work hard to stop the bloodshed," said Maliki, flanked by political party leaders in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.
Although the plan appears to conflict with a Shiite proposal to create bands of armed volunteers to guard neighborhoods, Shiite politicians and clerics endorsed Maliki's announcement.
"Despite the bloodshed taking place every day, there is a strong intention by the political blocs," said Hadi Amri, a parliament member and leader of the Badr Brigade, one of the nation's largest Shiite paramilitary groups. "During the last two days, we sensed a universal desire to stop the violence, which is harming all the political blocs and, most importantly, the Iraqi people."
Shiite cleric and legislator Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir urged Iraqis to work with the plan.
"I hope that people from all sects will take this message presented today from the political blocs and understand that the politicians have agreed, and not weaken in their fight against terror," he said.
Ammar Wajeeh, a prominent Sunni Arab politician, was more cautious. "We will see whether this agreement will be effective or not," he said. "The purpose of this initiative is to strengthen national reconciliation and to end the influence of militias."
The announcement came less than a week after senior U.S. military officials in Iraq told reporters that Maliki, a Shiite, was not doing enough to stop sectarian violence in Baghdad, and that he was impeding planned offensives against Shiite paramilitary fighters.
Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commander of ground forces in Iraq, disavowed that criticism last week. On Monday, he issued a joint statement with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, saying the plan was the result of "two days of frank and intense discussions and negotiation."
"This is a significant step in the right direction and shows that the Iraqi leaders want their country to succeed and are responding to the wishes of their people for security," the statement said.
As the politicians announced their security plan, Al Sharqiya, an Iraqi satellite television channel, reported that the number of violent deaths in Baghdad had reached a high of 1,980 in September.
The figure could not be independently confirmed, but if correct it would undercut assertions by U.S. officials that an offensive in the capital was making headway against sectarian violence.
The announcement also came on a day when Baghdad police found at least 40 bodies, many of them handcuffed and bearing gunshot and torture wounds. Ten of the victims were identified as Sunni Arabs who had been among a group of 22 people kidnapped from a food processing plant Sunday.
At least 20 people were killed throughout Iraq on Monday, including two U.S. soldiers shot to death in Baghdad.
The U.S. military also announced that a Marine was killed in combat and another died in an accident Saturday. Both occurred in Al Anbar province.
In Baghdad, a large force of gunmen dressed in police uniforms and driving seven identical sport utility vehicles commonly used by Iraqi security forces abducted 14 employees from an electronics market.
Interior Ministry officials denied any connection to the incident.
A group of armed men hijacked a minibus, fatally shot the driver and kidnapped four female Finance Ministry employees. Police fought off the attackers and rescued the women.
Gunmen also shot at an Education Ministry security convoy, killing one guard and injuring another.
Mortar attacks on a Sunni Arab neighborhood in southwest Baghdad killed four people and injured 20, and four bomb attacks elsewhere in the capital killed at least seven people and wounded at least 29 others.
North of Hawija, in the Kirkuk oil region, insurgents shot and killed one policeman and injured another.
In the southern port city of Basra, a British convoy was attacked by gunmen. A soldier was reportedly killed.
In Babil province, a car with four occupants exploded at an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing the motorists.
U.S. forces turned over Forward Operating Base Duke, a military base in the southern province of Najaf, to Iraqi border patrol forces.
Iraq's Interior Ministry assumed control of a wide swath of desert extending from the Saudi Arabian border to Al Anbar province.
Times staff writer Saif Hameed, special correspondent Ali Windawi and correspondents in Baghdad and Kuwait contributed to this report.
------------------------
Citation: Solomon Moore. "Iraqis Plan a Team Effort to End Violence," Los Angeles Times, 03 October 2006.
Original URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq3oct03,1,2824157.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
------------------------