More than 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by US troops and air support, will set up hundreds of checkpoints, raid houses and search vehicles as part of Operation Lightning, Iraqi's interior and defense ministers announced Thursday.
Meanwhile, two US soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down and crashed in central Iraq, the military said Friday, as the government announces a massive crackdown against insurgents in Baghdad.
US investigators are probing Thursday's mishap involving a two-seater OH-58 Kiowa helicopter that crashed near Buhriz, a former Saddam stronghold about 60km north of Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities are preparing to launch the largest show of force since Saddam's ouster in the capital in a bid to curb the rampant insurgency, which has killed more than 650 people since the country's new government was announced April 28.
In a reminder of the deadly insurgency, violence claimed at least 15 lives Thursday across Iraq, including a car bomb blast in northern Baghdad's Shula neighborhood that killed five people, including three police.
Army official Sadiq Jaafar said yesterday that police raided two Baghdad homes overnight and detained four suspects, including three brothers, over the Shula bombing, which also wounded 17 people, said army Staff Brigadier Sadiq Jaafar.
Another ambush targeting a police patrol, this time in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killed one policeman and a bystander caught in the crossfire yesterday, said police Brigadier Saeed Ahmed.
The policeman was killed in a car bomb blast targeting his patrol, while gunbattles that broke out between police and insurgents left an Iraqi civilian dead, Ahmed said. Five police were wounded.
American authorities are investigating the killing of three Iraqis who died when US soldiers shot at their van in southeastern Baghdad on Thursday, military spokesman Master Sergeant Greg Kaufman said.
The military said small arms fire forced the Kiowa helicopter to crash, while another returned to base safely despite being hit, said Harper.
The armed US reconnaissance helicopters were flying in support of combat operations in Buhriz. The slain soldiers were with Task Force Liberty, under the command of the Tikrit-based 42nd Infantry Division.
Iraqi authorities did not say how long Operation Lightning would last, and it was uncertain if the Iraq security services are capable of mounting a sustained operation.
Iraq has 89,400 security personnel, including commando units, with Interior Ministry, according to the US military. The figure may include some deserters. Another 75,800 forces are in the military, mostly the army.
"We will establish, with God's help, an impenetrable blockade surrounding Baghdad like a bracelet surrounds a wrist," Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi said.
Baghdad will be divided into two sectors, Karkh on the west bank of the Tigris river that separates the city, and Risafa on the east. Karkh will be split into 15 sub-districts and Risafa into seven. Security forces will operate 24 hours a day.
Northwest of Baghdad, in the city of Haditha, more than 1,000 US troops continued a sweep for insurgents responsible for attacks against coalition troops. They ordered at least one airstrike Thursday against a suspected militant position. At least 11 insurgents and one Marine have been killed since Operation New Market began Wednesday.
Some of the insurgents in Haditha are believed loyal to Iraq's most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose fate has been the subject of intense discussions this week from Baghdad to the Internet to Washington.
The Iraqi interior and defense ministers said Thursday the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been wounded, confirming several Internet statements making the same claim this week.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS