By Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times
26 May 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 26 - The new Iraqi government announced sweeping measures today to clamp down on insurgents in Baghdad and the rest of the country, saying it would deploy 40,000 Iraqi troops in the capital over the next week.
The Iraqi government released this image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on March 7. Iraqi ministers today backed reports that he had been injured, but offered no other details.
In the operation, soldiers and security forces will set up 600 checkpoints around Baghdad, some of them mobile, and will check the identification of Iraqis in neighborhoods and hotels.
The announcement came on a day that saw at least 10 more people killed in a suicide bombing and shootings in the capital. In addition, four people, a child and three policemen, were killed in gunfights in the northern city of Mosul. The operation, which will divide Baghdad into seven areas, will also include raids on suspected insurgent hideouts.
"There is no timeline - the timeline is to defeat terrorists," Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said at a news conference with the interior minister, Bayan Jabor.
"There is no place for terrorists in this country," Mr. Dulaimi said.
In a brief reference to the most wanted militant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the ministers said they had information that he had been injured, but offered no other details. Their comment followed similar information posted on an Islamic Web site on Wednesday.
Mr. Dulaimi said that a blockade will be imposed around the capital, "like a bracelet around an arm, God willing," adding, "No one will be able to penetrate this blockade."
The operation will continue in the rest of the country for several weeks, the ministers said.
The ministers also cautioned that any arrests would be well-planned and not reckless.
Iraq will not "achieve security at the expense of human dignity," Mr. Dulaimi said, adding that the government wished "to build good relations with people."
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Citation: Sabrina Tavernise, "Iraqi Leaders Announce Major Effort to Curb Insurgents," New York Times, 26 May 2005.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/26/international/middleeast/26cnd-iraq.html?pagewanted=print
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