US detains 200 in Iraq operation
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—US and Iraqi forces have detained more than 200 suspected insurgents and three “high-value” al Qaeda operatives in a major operation in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
It said in a statement that significant progress had been made against al Qaeda in Iraq during the first week of the operation in four northern provinces. The operation had also netted multiple weapons caches that included more than a tonne of various explosives, hundreds of artillery rounds and rockets, the statement added.
“The combined operations of Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. Army brigades in our four provinces in Northern Iraq have been nothing short of phenomenal,” said U.S. Major-General Mark Hertling, a senior military commander in Iraq.
The operation aims to keep up pressure on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. Many operatives from the militant group fled to northern Iraq from western Anbar province and Baghdad when the U.S. military stepped up offensives in those areas earlier this year.
The U.S. military has hailed what it calls successes in fighting al Qaeda in Iraq, but has warned that the group, which is blamed for most major car bombings in Iraq, could regroup.
The number of bombings and suicide attacks has dropped dramatically in the Iraqi capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday, claiming sectarian violence “is closed now.”
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb missed a U.S. convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding four other Iraqis, police said.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, told reporters that “terrorist acts” including car bombings and suicide attacks have dropped by 77 percent from last year’s high, a sign that Sunni-Shiite violence “is closed now.”
“When the sectarian strife is over, then I will not fear the gangs who are running between the provinces,” al-Maliki said, an apparent reference to al-Qaida and other Sunni religious extremists that have been driven from the capital.
“The majority of these terrorists are fleeing to nearby countries, and I warned our brothers in the Islamic and Arab countries to be aware in order that they not harm these countries,” he said.
Al-Maliki said he was considering an amnesty for those “who were lured or committed some crimes,” although he added that the move would not include those “convicted of killings or bombings.”
In a sign the government is working toward reconciliation, 70 former members of Saddam Hussein’s party were reinstated to their jobs after they joined the fight against al-Qaida in Anbar province, said Ali al-Lami, a senior official with the commission that considered their cases.
Al-Lami told The Associated Press that the former Baath party members included 12 university professors, officers in the disbanded Iraqi army, former policemen and teachers.
The upbeat statements reflected those of U.S. military officials. Last week, the commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, said bombings and killings had been declining steadily since a spike last June and “it continues to come down every month.”
Despite security improvements, violence is continuing, although at a lower level than last year at the height of the sectarian slaughter and before the arrival of nearly 30,000 U.S. reinforcements sent to Iraq to stem the killings.
U.S. soldiers sealed off part of the Baladiyat area after a roadside bomb exploded as an American convoy was passing through the mostly Shiite district, a policeman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The Iraqi victims were all bystanders, he said. There were no reports of American casualties.
In western Baghdad, assailants in a speeding car hurled a hand grenade at a minibus traveling to Baiyaa, a flashpoint neighborhood where Shiite militiamen drove away many Sunnis this year.