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Edited on Wed Aug-09-06 04:59 PM by newyawker99
Iraqi and US forces relaunch operation to secure Baghdad
Posted: 09 August 2006 1452 hrs
BAGHDAD - US and Iraqi forces on Wednesday formally launched the second phase of a security plan designed to regain control of the streets of Baghdad and put an end to a wave of vicious sectarian murders.
Phase two of Operation Together Forward will bring an extra 6,000 Iraqi police and troops into the capital, along with 5,500 American soldiers pulled in from different missions elsewhere in Iraq, a US statement said.
The first phase of the plan, which began in June, has already put more than 50,000 soldiers on the streets but has thus far failed to stem a surge in tit-for-tat sectarian killings and indiscriminate bomb attacks.
"We must dramatically reduce the level of violence in Bagdad that is fuelling sectarianism," said Major General James Thurman, commander of US-led forces in the Baghdad region.
"Iraqi and US forces will help the citizens of Baghdad by reducing the violence that has plagued this city since the Samarra bombing," he said, referring to an insurgent attack on a Shiite mosque in February.
Since July 9, Iraqi and US troops operating under the original plan have killed or captured 411 "murderers associated with death squads", the statement said, using the military's new catch-all term for illegal armed groups.
AFP /ls
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