Agence France Presse, 13 April 2006
US and Iraqi forces have nearly doubled patrols in Baghdad over the last two months to quell the outburst of sectarian bloodshed, US military said.
From an average of 12,000 patrols in February in Baghdad, the US and Iraqi forces have raised the patrols to 20,000 "a jump of 45 percent," said US military spokesman Major General Rick Lynch.
"The increase is to give more visible presence of the security forces inside the streets of Baghdad," Lynch told reporters Thursday.
He said 3,700 troops have been added to the joint forces, which were 26,000 Iraqi troops and 10,000 US troops in February.
"The enemy, the Zarqawis and the Al-Qaeda want to stop the formation of a national unity government by triggering sectarian violence like the one we saw at the Baratha mosque," he said accusing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, of bombing the Baratha Shiite mosque.
On April 7, three suicide bombers, two dressed as women, blew themselves up in Baghdad's Shiite Baratha mosque and killed 90 worshippers as they were stepping out of the sanctuary after their Friday prayers.
"The enemy is still there, but we are taking the fight to the enemy, specifically in Baghdad," he said.
Lynch said the increase in patrols has led to fewer attacks.
"There has been a decrease in number of attacks, two attacks less per day, an IED less per day and a small-arms fire less per day," he said.
The increase in US patrols, however, does not mean that US forces are taking back responsibility of areas handed over to Iraqi forces in the past few months.
"No, we are not taking back any battlespace from the Iraqi forces. We have trust and confidence in them and they are the ones who actually get the human intelligence," Lynch said.
Nearly 60 percent of Baghdad's security in currently under Iraqi forces.
Lynch also accepted that there has been a spike in violence against the US forces in the past few weeks across Iraq.
More than 30 US troops have been killed across Iraq since April 1.
But he denied that the pattern of insurgency had been reversed in any way, from attacks on Iraqi civilians back to coalition forces.
"There has been a spike in violence against coalition forces, not in terms of attacks but casualties," he said. "It is not a reversal of trend, the enemy is still targeting innocent people and triggering sectarian attacks."
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Citation: "US, Iraqi forces double patrols to quell Baghdad bloodshed," Agence France Presse, 13 April 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060413/pl_afp/iraqussecurity
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