Baghdad, Iraq – The U.S. military issued a sober assessment Tuesday of the Baghdad security crackdown, saying violence had decreased slightly but not to “the degree we would like to see” in the two weeks since 75,000 Iraqi and American troops flooded the capital.
The evaluation came as 18 more Iraqis fell victim to sectarian and insurgent violence, including five people whose bodies were found dumped in Baghdad. The U.S. military announced the deaths of a Marine and three soldiers; three of the deaths were in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said the overwhelming security operation launched two weeks ago to rein in violence in Baghdad was moving more slowly than hoped.
“It’s going to take some time. We do not see an upward trend. We … see a slight decrease but not of the degree we would like to see at this point,” he said.
However, Caldwell added, “we don’t see this as turning into a civil war right now.”
U.S. officials hope the willingness of leading Sunni Arabs to withdraw support for the insurgency will help heal the nation.
On Tuesday, an influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s 24-point reconciliation plan.
Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment, the state agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, applauded the provision that calls for the release of all prisoners who have not been charged with crimes.
He called on the government to implement the plan quickly but emphasized that it should include the disbanding of armed Shiite militias. Minority Sunnis have accused Shiite-led militias of random detention, torture and killing.
Al-Samaraie’s endorsement came a day after key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce. The seven groups do not include al-Qaeda or Islamic terror groups. They are mostly made up of former members or backers of Saddam Hussein’s government, military or security agencies.
The Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said 453 more detainees were released from U.S. detention centers, part of al-Maliki’s plan to free 2,500 by the end of June as a goodwill gesture.
