Baghdad, Iraq – American and Iraqi troops plan to launch a large-scale security sweep in Baghdad today following a surprise 5 1/2-hour visit to the Iraqi capital by President Bush on Tuesday.
According to the plan, which Iraqi officials have hinted at for several weeks, tens of thousands of Iraqi and American troops are expected to flood Baghdad neighborhoods to install checkpoints and enforce a partial weapons ban, a curfew and other security measures.
Only Iraqi security forces and those with a license will be allowed to carry weapons on the streets, but Iraqis will still be allowed to own one automatic weapon for their own protection as long as the weapon is kept at home, Maj. Gen. Abed Jassem of Iraq’s Ministry of Defense told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
A night curfew will run from 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. for an indefinite period of time. A midday vehicle ban will also be imposed between the hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The visit by Bush, who met with Iraqi government leaders and American soldiers in the tightly secured Green Zone, came at what American and Iraqi officials hope will be a crucial time.
In recent days, a new democratically elected government has taken shape, and the U.S. military has killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
But Baghdad remains more violent than at any other time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
At least 2,155 people died violently in the capital during May, according to government documents.
The new security plan for Baghdad is designed to stem the escalating series of shootings, bombings and kidnappings.
The plan was one of the topics of discussion as Bush met with Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, and his cabinet inside one of Saddam Hussein’s ornate former palaces, which now serves as part of the U.S. embassy here.
“I’ve come not only to look you in the eye,” Bush told al-Maliki. “I’ve also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it will keep its word. It’s in our interest that Iraq succeeds.”
The visit, Bush’s first to Iraq since Thanksgiving Day of 2003, came as at least 37 people were killed in violence in Baghdad and to the west and north of the capital. Iraqi security forces arrested 56 suspected insurgents and killed five others during a 24-hour period ending Tuesday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense.
