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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and