New Protection For Baghdad: Trenches

60 Miles Will Be Dug In Latest Effort To Keep Car Bombs Out Of Iraqi Capital

(CBS/AP) 
In yet another twist, President George W. Bush also mentioned that Iraqi authorities had new plan to safeguard Baghdad but he spoke of building berms rather than digging ditches.

"And so they've got a plan now. They've adapted. The enemy moved, we'll help the Iraqis move. They're building a berm around the city to make it harder for people to come in with explosive devices, for example," Bush said during a White House news conference.

Car bombs are responsible for much of the killing in Baghdad. Most are thought to be assembled in areas just south of the city, in the so-called Triangle of Death. There have been past operations to prevent such bombs from being smuggled into the capital, but most involved setting up checkpoints.

The first such grand plan — dubbed Operation Lightning — was launched with much fanfare in May 2005. It deployed more than 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by U.S. troops and air support. One of its main goals was to prevent car bombs assembled south of Baghdad from reaching the capital.

But it failed, and a year later, as killings in Baghdad surged, a joint U.S.-Iraqi security plan known as Operation Together Forward was launched on June 15. It too has made little headway, with the Baghdad death toll surpassing 1,500 in July, triggering fears among the U.S. military that civil war was about to break out.

Thousands of U.S. troops were moved in from Iraq's volatile Anbar province, where the insurgency is still strong, because curbing sectarian violence in Baghdad is a higher priority, one the top American commanders said Friday.

"The main effort is Baghdad, and we must ensure that we weight the main effort," Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli said. He was using military terminology for drawing on available troops elsewhere in order to bolster the military effort in Baghdad.

As part of the trench plan, Khalaf said vehicle and pedestrian traffic would be restricted to just 28 entry points with manned checkpoints. Similar checkpoints exit now along some central routes through Baghdad, including the highway to the airport. But they need hundreds of troops to maintain them.

"We will leave only 28 inlets to Baghdad while all other inlets will be blocked. Supports will be added to the trenches to hinder the movements of people and vehicles. The trenches will be under our watch," he said.

According to Khalaf, the plan was inspired by the 627 battle of Khandaq, or battle of the trench, during which the Prophet Mohammed protected the city of Median from a far larger army by digging deep trenches. The idea for the trench was introduced by one his companions Salmon al-Farsi — or Salman the Persian.

Khalaf said that if it was possible at the time to dig such trenches with hand tools, it should not be a problem to dig them today using modern machinery.