US soldiers arrive in Baghdad as violence rages on (2nd Roundup)

Jan 21, 2007, 15:30 GMT

Baghdad - Unrest and violence raged on in Iraq Sunday as an additional 3,200 US soldiers arrived in Baghdad under a Washington- backed extended security plan.

The forces would begin operations on February 1, spokesman General Ray Odierno said. Forces are to be beefed up around Baghdad and joint US-Iraqi forces are expected to crack down on militants in extensive neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood raids.

The death toll of US soldiers killed over the previous 24 hours rose Sunday to 22 - including 12 in a helicopter crash - as five soldiers died in a militia attack on a security centre in Karbala and five soldiers elsewhere, the US military said.

It revised downwards from 13 to 12 the number killed when the helicopter crashed in a region north-east of Baghdad inhabited by Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

US soldiers had been able to secure the crash site and seal it off. The circumstances of the crash were as yet unknown and an investigation was underway, a spokesman said.

In Karbala, an 'illegally armed militia group' attacked the Provincial Joint Coordination Centre where US and Iraqi forces hold security meetings, killing five US soldiers.

At the time of the attack, US and Iraqi soldiers had been meeting to develop a security plan for Shiites attending Ashura commemorations, said Brigadier General Vincent K Brooks, Deputy Commander of coalition forces in Baghdad.

'The attack ... was aimed at coalition and Iraqi security forces working together toward a better future for the citizens of Karbala,' said coalition spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Scott R Bleichwehl.

Police said three kidnapped US soldiers were killed in Mahaweel, near Karbala, around 80 kilometres south of Baghdad as US and Iraqi troops tailed vehicles believed carrying militants from Karbala.

One soldier was reported wounded in the operation during which the forces, according to police, managed to catch up with the vehicles containing the three soldiers' bodies. The militants fled.

Authorities believe the militants had kidnapped the three and killed them inside the vehicles when their escape from Karbala was interrupted.

One US soldier died Saturday of wounds sustained when a roadside improvised bomb detonated near his vehicle in northern Iraq, and another died in northern Baghdad. A British soldier was also killed while on patrol in Basra, the London defence ministry said.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces said they killed one militant and detained 18 suspects early Sunday in raids triggered by recent intelligence reports, and targeting al-Qaeda supporters.

In al-Anbar province, six Iraqis, believed to have ties to 'a weapons and bomb facilitator' were detained. In Mosul, one militant was shot down after a brief exchange of fire with the US forces.

In and around Fallujah, Tikrit, Karmah and Balad, 12 more suspects were rounded up. Weapons caches were also seized, the US military said, while documents were found concerning 'a coalition forces member stationed at a nearby US military installation.'

On Palestine street off Beirut square in the centre of Baghdad, an explosion rocked the street killing an Iraqi civilian and wounding five others. According to police officials, a car bomb caused the deadly blast.

In response to the continuing violence, Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki addressed the nation Sunday, again warning of the implications of 'spilling innocent Iraqi blood' had on Iraq's security and future.

'The recent operations that targeted students, labourers and children have confirmed to everyone that these people do not target a certain sectarian or national fragment (of society). They target the Iraqi man and the Iraqi way,' said al-Maliki.

Despite of angry reactions, al-Maliki did not comment on the controversial arrest of a prominent follower of the Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr and the group's spokesman, detained Friday in a joint operation between the US-led collation forces and the Iraqi Army.

The arrest of Sheikh Abdel-hadi al-Deraji had triggered anger among al-Sadr supporters, who described the arrest as 'malicious', and this spread Sunday even to MPs not affiliated with al-Sadr.

Abdel-Karim al-Anzy, member of the United Iraqi Alliance which has 128 seats in parliament, said the government should have been pre- informed of the arrest, which had been 'a political decision,' and warned such high-profile arrests could threaten the country's already wavering stability.

An al-Sadr-affiliated MP was more outspoken, telling the press that the arrest of al-Deraji was 'inhuman, against human rights' and noted that one of al-Deraji's guards was killed during the arrest.

'Al-Deraji's arrest is not right, and we hope that the government would take serious and real steps in order to release him,' said Falah Hassan Shanshal, who added that the Sadrists would work to put an end to unwarranted 'random detentions.'

Although the government was partly blamed for not pushing for the release, a government spokesman quoted by pan-Arab Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper said al-Maliki was unaware of the arrest.

Ali al-Dabagh said al-Maliki 'was not aware of the arrest of al- Deraji' and that 'he will be released.' Al-Dabagh insisted however that 'doubts' still surround al-Deraji and that he will be 'questioned and interrogated' in regards to these suspicions.

An unnamed source from the Sadr faction told the newspaper that raids against his group have continued over the past two days.

Unrest meanwhile has plagued a village in the autonomous Kurdistan region. The US military reportedly asked the inhabitants of the village to evacuate their homes in return for compensation.

Roads leading to the village, which lies under the authority of Karadagh council south of the Suleimaniyah governorate, were reportedly to be sealed off by the US forces.

Inhabitants told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the US military wanted to install a large military base in the area.

In statements to the Kurdish Hawlati newspaper, Kurdish senior official Jaafar al-Barzanji said some Kurdish officials had indeed asked the US military to establish bases in the autonomous regions 'so as to guarantee the rights of the Kurds and to protect their interests from foreign threats.'