New Iraqi security plan officially launched (2nd Roundup)

Feb 15, 2007, 0:51 GMT

Baghdad - The much-vaunted new security plan for Iraq was officially launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Wednesday amid continuing civilian deaths in insurgent attacks and major anti- militant operations by US and Iraqi forces.

Speaking during a visit to Karbala, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, al-Maliki said the new security plan offered Iraqis a vital chance for 'building their homeland.'

'The launch of the security plan is a message to all those who rebelled against the law,' he said, adding that the plan was applicable to all Iraqi religious and ethnic communities without exceptions.

The new security initiative had been informally in effect since February 6 with operations carried out by Iraqi troops backed by multinational forces in Baghdad and nearby cities.

Earlier Wednesday, the so-called Mahdi army, a Shiite Muslim militia in Iraq, insisted that its leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, remains at his headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

Press reports said Tuesday that al-Sadr, son of a Shiite cleric slain in 1999 under the former Iraqi regime, had crossed from Iraq into neighbouring Iran two to three weeks ago. US General William Caldwell confirmed in an interview Wednesday with CNN that the United States believes al-Sadr was in Iran but declined to say why the anti- American preacher might have left Iraq.

The militantly anti-American al-Sadr is linked to a bloc in the new Iraqi parliament.

'The al-Sadr movement strongly supports the Iraqi government's new security plan,' said former parliament member Fattah al-Sheikh, a high-ranking member of the Mahdi army, which is active in Baghdad and southern Iraq.

In Tehran, Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted an unnamed official source as denying press reports that al-Sadr was in Iran.

An Iraqi government source said Wednesday that authorities moves were begun Tuesday to to close Iraq's borders with Syria and Iran, as part of the plan.

Meanwhile, a joint Iraqi and US military force stormed a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad. During the raid on the Bratha mosque, money, weapons, computers and mobile phones were seized, witnesses said.

Parliament member Jalal al-Din al-Saghir is the imam of the mosque, one of the oldest Shiite mosques in Baghdad.

Despite the new security measures, three Iraqis were killed and five injured in a pair of bombings Wednesday.

A roadside car bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded three in south- eastern Baghdad. Iraqi police sealed off the blast area as ambulances rushed to the scene.

In Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, an explosive device implanted on a main road was detonated as a British Army patrol passed the site, witnesses said. One Iraqi was killed in the blast, but no British military casualties were reported.

Witnesses said that a British base in the suburbs of Basra came under rocket fire, but no official confirmation was available.

Elsewhere in Iraq, US-led coalition forces on Wednesday detained 27 terrorist suspects, the US military reported.

During a series of raids in Ramadi, coalition forces detained 20 suspected terrorists with alleged ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq and seized computers as well as electronic equipment.

In Baghdad, coalition forces detained another four suspected terrorists and three more in Karmah.

Separately, US-led coalition forces killed 15 suspected terrorists and prevented two improvised explosive devices from being placed Wednesday morning in Baghdad's Arab Jabour district during operations 'targeting al-Qaeda terrorists and an associated improvised explosive device network.'

The network is allegedly responsible for a large number of devastating bombings in Baghdad, a military statement said.

While conducting operations in the area, the coalition was attacked by enemy forces on the ground and from a fortified building in the area.

The US Army confirmed Wednesday that investigations into a February 7 US helicopter crash, in which seven US marines died, appeared to have been the result of hostile fire.

It had been earlier indicated that the helicopter went down as a result of a mechanical failure.

The US Army announced Wednesday that Iraqi Army special forces captured an alleged member of the Mahdi army during an operation with coalition advisors Tuesday in northern Baghdad.

The detainee is believed to be responsible for kidnapping, torture and murder of Iraqi citizens and security forces in the area. Ten other suspects were detained for questioning.