World

Iraqi Troops To Circle Baghdad

May 26, 2005 / 8:06 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The Iraqi government announced Thursday that a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will ring Baghdad starting next week to try to halt a spree of insurgent violence that has killed more than 620 people this month.

The security cordon next week would be followed by similar anti-terrorism moves across the country, part of an effort to shift the government stance toward the insurgency from a defensive to an offensive position, said Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi.

"Next week, we will have a strong and safe cordon around Baghdad like a bracelet that surrounds the hand. We will not allow anyone to cross this cordon," al-Duleimi said.

Jabr said there would be 675 checkpoints plus mobile checkpoints to try to deter assailants in areas where attacks are frequent and cars are often booby-trapped.

"You will witness unprecedented security measures and none familiar to you," he said. "We have to work together, government and people, because security is for all the citizens, not just the government."

In other recent developments:

Iraq's most lethal insurgent group appears to be facing a leadership crisis amid conflicting reports about the fate of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and whether a Saudi militant has been named to stand in for him. Iraq's interior and defense ministers said Thursday they have information that al-Zarqawi has been wounded — apparent confirmation of recent rumors that the Jordanian-born terrorist leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was injured. But the officials said they did not know how severe the injury might be.

The military said a U.S. Marine died of wounds sustained a day earlier during the launch of an anti-insurgent offensive involving about 1,000 U.S. troops in the western city of Haditha.

A car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad near a police patrol, killing five people — three officers and two other Iraqis — and wounding 17, according to police Lt. Haider Hussein and medic Naseer Hashim of Nour Hospital.

Unknown gunmen shot dead Iraqi army Capt. Awas Youssif Hassan in Khalis area east of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. said army Col. Abdulla al-Shimary.

Gunmen in a speeding car fired automatic weapons at a group of people driving to work in Baghdad's southern Risala neighborhood, killing four Iraqis, including a university professor and a translator working for the U.S. military, said police Lt. Hussam Noori.

A top Industry Ministry official, Samir Nima Ghaidan, was shot to death by gunmen while leaving his office in northern Baghdad, said army Capt. Hussein Hakim. Ghaidan ran the ministry's transport department.

A minibus packed with passengers came under gunfire in southeastern Baghdad, leaving three people dead, including two brothers, and four wounded, said police Sgt. Najim Aboud. A U.S. military official said he had heard of the report and an investigation was under way.

Mosul police Brig. Saed Ahmed said six militants were also killed, 20 injured and 26 suspected insurgents arrested when militants clashed with U.S. and Iraqi troops Wednesday in the northern city.

The ministers said Baghdad would be divided into two sectors and 15 districts where police and emergency personnel would operate 24 hours a day.

"We will stand against anyone who tries to kill Iraqis and we will impose the law by adopting all tough measures," Jabr said.

"We do believe that we are going to give Iraqis what they have lacked," al-Duleimi said, an apparent reference to the poor security available throughout Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 U.S. troops continued a sweep through Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad in the troubled Anbar province, for insurgents responsible for multiple attacks against coalition troops.

A child was killed when a mortar landed on his family home Wednesday, the military added.

The offensive, the second on a road to Damascus in less than a month, was aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people since a new Iraqi government was announced April 28.

Another Iraqi child was killed Thursday during clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents in northern city of Tal Afar, 93 miles east of the Syrian border.

Tal Afar has been the scene of clashes since two explosions late Monday killed at least 20 people. Iraqi security forces closed access to the town and residents have said U.S. forces backed by helicopters have since been clashing with insurgents.

Salih Haider Qado, director of Tal Afar hospital, said two children — one about a month old and another about a year old — were killed in fighting Wednesday, while four civilians were wounded.

It was unclear if the two incidents were related.

Last year, a nearly two-week siege of Tal Afar by U.S.-led forces targeted foreign fighters holed up in the city, which is astride a smuggling route to Syria.