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IRAQ WRAPUP 1-Iraq presents plan to fight insurgents
04 Aug 2005 18:49:09 GMT
Source: Reuters
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Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi (R) listens to the Iraqi national anthem with U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus (L) and an unidentified Iraqi general at a police graduation event in the southern Iraqi town of Hilla August 4, 2005. Over 400 new policemen graduated during the event. At a press conference held later in the day in Baghdad, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced a new security plan for Iraq which had been adopted by government.
REUTERS/CEERWAN AZIZ
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi (R) listens to the Iraqi national anthem with U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus (L) and an unidentified Iraqi general at a police graduation event in the southern Iraqi town of Hilla August 4, 2005. Over 400 new policemen graduated during the event. At a press conference held later in the day in Baghdad, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced a new security plan for Iraq which had been adopted by government.
REUTERS/CEERWAN AZIZ
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi (R) speaks with military officials at a police graduation event in the southern Iraqi town of Hilla August 4, 2005. Over 400 new policemen graduated during the event. At a news conference held later in the day in Baghdad, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced a new security plan for Iraq which had been adopted by government.
REUTERS/CEERWAN AZIZ
A new Iraqi police graduate holds his diploma at a ceremony in the southern Iraqi town of Hilla August 4, 2005. Over 400 new policemen graduated during the event. At a news conference held later in the day in Baghdad, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced a new security plan for Iraq which had been adopted by government.
REUTERS/CEERWAN AZIZ
By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari set out a 12-point security plan on Thursday to fight "the worst kind of war" waged by insurgents but gave few details of how he would end daily bloodshed. Faced with suicide bombings, assassinations, sectarian strife and growing questions from Iraqi voters -- set for an election in under five months -- about when U.S. troops will go home, Jaafari is keen to show his government is taking control. At a news conference, described in advance by his office as "very important", Jaafari said he had seen an an improvement in the abilities of Iraqi security forces. He presented a broad strategy for defeating guerrillas waging a campaign to topple his U.S.-backed government, saying "we are at war, the worst kind of war". It included better intelligence coordination, the creation of a War Information Office to undermine the support base of terrorists, improved border security through closer cooperation and an economic plan to defeat the insurgency. Point Eight, as described in a statement from Jaafari's office, was: "Encouraging increased participation in the political process and launching initiatives for national unity." The prime minister unveiled his plan hours after journalists accompanied him to a police graduation ceremony in a southern town where a suicide bomber had killed 125 people in February. Iraq's new leaders came to power after a January election at which they promised to defeat guerrillas. But Iraqis have witnessed increasing violence and sectarian tensions since the polls empowered Jaafari's Shi'ite-dominated government and sidelined minority Sunnis who once formed Saddam Hussein's power base. RELENTLESS VIOLENCE A roadside bomb that blew up an armoured amphibious assault vehicle and killed 14 U.S. Marines in northwest Iraq on Wednesday also reminded the American military that the insurgency is still going strong despite repeated offensives. As Jaafari praised police graduates who along with military forces are expected to take over from the American troops, insurgents struck again in several cities. A suicide bomber in a car attacked a police checkpoint in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, killing at least four people, police said. Near the same town, insurgents stormed the home of an Iraqi soldier, killing his wife, his 12-year-old daughter and his 6-year-old son as they lay asleep, police and survivors said. Guerrillas also kept up assassinations of officials. Haidar al-Dujaili, a public relations officer working with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, was killed near his Baghdad home, said Chalabi's spokesman. Jaafari's plan also called for a more efficient justice system to ensure a quicker release of the innocent. Iraqis say their security forces arbitrarily arrest people during crackdowns and hold them for long periods. The government says security forces are under orders to respect human rights. Jaafari and other government officials have come under growing pressure to improve Iraqi security forces to stabilise the country so that widely resented U.S. forces can leave. A recent U.S. military report said that half of Iraq's police and army units were not capable of imposing security without American support. In spite of such grim assessments, Jaafari tried to raise the spirits of the Iraqi policemen, who graduated knowing that hundreds of their comrades have been killed. "All the people of the world and their governments stand by you and support you," he told them.
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