Bodies of 9 beheaded policemen found in al Qaeda stronghold
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Bodies of 9 beheaded policemen found in al Qaeda stronghold*
18 Mar 2007 19:01:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ibon Villelabeitia
BAGHDAD, March 18 (Reuters) - Police found the decapitated and bound
bodies of nine policemen in an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq on Sunday, as
U.S. commanders blamed the militant group for chlorine gas bombs that
poisoned hundreds in the same province.
Anbar, a Sunni Arab province west of Baghdad, has long been among the
most troublesome areas of Iraq for the U.S. military, which is sending
additional combat troops there to fight insurgents and al Qaeda
militants engaged in an escalating power struggle with local Sunni
tribesmen.
Iraqi police Colonel Tareq al-Theybani said the bodies, which bore signs
of torture, were discovered in an abandoned post office in the town of
Juwayba, near the city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.
A U.S. military spokesman, meanwhile, said al Qaeda was behind the
chlorine gas car bomb attacks earlier this week which killed at least
two and made hundreds ill in villages near the city of Falluja. But, he
said, tight Iraqi security measures had prevented a higher number of
casualties.
Friday's apparently coordinated attacks by two suicide bombers driving
dump trucks carrying chlorine and another smaller car bomb that also
released chlorine came weeks after two similar attacks sparked fears of
a new campaign to use unconventional weapons in Iraq.
Rear Adm. Mark Fox said one of the attackers detonated his explosives
when he was unable to get past an Iraqi checkpoint, killing only
himself, and avoiding more casualties.
"Steps and measures are being taken to protect people from car bombs,"
Fox told reporters at a news conference.
U.S. commanders have warned that while the number of murders and
executions have fallen sharply in Baghdad since a U.S.- backed security
crackdown was launched in mid-February, car bombs by suspected Sunni
Arab insurgents blamed for trying to incite sectarian civil war remain a
serious concern.
CAR BOMB
On Sunday, a car bomb at a crowded market in a mainly Shi'ite
neighborhood of northern Baghdad killed six people and wounded 30,
police said. Five bodies were also found in different parts of Baghdad
on Sunday, a police source said.
Shi'ite militias the Pentagon said in a report last year had become the
greatest threat to security in Iraq have been lying low since the
Baghdad plan was launched, but Sunni militants have continued their attacks.
As thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops are deployed in Baghdad in a
security plan that is seen as the last chance to avert all-out civil
war, American soldiers are also focusing their efforts on finding car
bomb factories in mostly Sunni areas of the Baghdad beltway.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it was too early
to evaluate whether the latest U.S. strategy was working but "so far, so
good."
American generals say it will probably be summer before the impact of
additional U.S. troops sent to Iraq can be fully assessed, and have
warned that the troop surge could have a "squirting effect" where al
Qaeda and insurgents would operate from elsewhere, Gates said.
"I think that the way I would characterize it is so far, so good. It's
very early," Gates said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" program.
U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered an additional 26,000 troops to
Iraq. Only two of five additional combat brigades expected to be
deployed in Iraq under Bush's "surge" have arrived, Fox said.
"It is going to take months rather than weeks to see the results we want
to see," he said.
The U.S. military announced on Sunday two more U.S. combat deaths after
five were killed in two roadside bombs announced on Saturday. Another
U.S. soldier died on Saturday in a non combat incident, the U.S.
military said.
(Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons and Waleed Ibrahim)