BAGHDAD — The U.S. military launched a countrywide offensive Tuesday against al-Qaeda in Iraq’s efforts to regroup and intensify suicide strikes on civilians who have sided with the Americans against the terror group.
But the latest U.S. blitz brings more than just firepower to the field — it brings a determination to speed up work on basic services and other civic projects that commanders believe will win more converts to the American effort.
The No. 2 U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, announced the new operation — named Phantom Phoenix — and took pains to say it would focus on bettering Iraqi lives as well as on attacks against al-Qaeda.
“The nonlethal aspects of this operation are designed to improve delivery of essential services, economic development and local governance capacity,” the military statement said.
By emphasizing that the offensive was twofold, the Pentagon appeared to acknowledge that it will be difficult to maintain lower levels of violence without swaying more support from the streets — particularly as al-Qaeda in Iraq is waging a renewed campaign of suicide attacks in recent weeks against America’s new Sunni allies.
The Pentagon’s emphasis on the “nonlethal” aspects of the operation — while vague — indicates Washington feared the window could slam shut on ongoing successes in recruiting former enemies, many of whom are being paid $300 a month by the U.S. military.
The U.S. military already has spent vast sums on public-works projects nationwide in attempts to improve schools, boost electricity and potable water service, pave roads and rebuild sewer systems.
But Tuesday’s announcement appears to have been the first American operation that publicly declared an intention to at once kill and capture al-Qaeda fighters while pushing to improve the lives of Iraqi people in other ways.
On Tuesday, police said gunmen kidnapped eight members of a newly formed U.S.-backed Shiite armed group in northern Baghdad’s Shaab neighborhood, one of the capital’s most dangerous areas and a center for outlawed Shiite fighters.
Elsewhere in the capital Tuesday, the head of the municipality of Baghdad’s primarily Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
To the south, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint manned by police special forces in the Madain area, about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two members of the special forces and wounding five people.
