Results of security push mixed
Attacks continue in Baghdad
BAGHDAD -- Nearly two months into the new security push in Baghdad, there has been some success in reducing the number of death squad victims found crumpled in the streets each day.
And while the overall casualty rates for all of Iraq have not dropped significantly, largely because of devastating suicide bombings, a few parts of the capital have become calmer as some death squads have decided to lie low.
But there is little sign that the Baghdad push is accomplishing its main purpose: to create an island of stability in which Sunni Arabs, Shi'ite Arabs, and Kurds can try to figure out how to run the country together. There has been no visible move toward compromise on the main dividing issues such as regional autonomy and more power-sharing between Shi'ites and Sunnis.
For US troops, Baghdad has become a deadlier battleground as they have poured into the capital to confront Sunni and Shi'ite militias on their home streets. The rate of US deaths in the city over the first seven weeks of the security plan has nearly doubled from the previous period, though it has stayed roughly the same overall, decreasing in other parts of the country as troops have focused on the capital.
American commanders say it will be months before they can draw conclusions about the campaign to secure Baghdad, and just more than half of the so-called surge of nearly 30,000 additional troops into the country have arrived. But at the same time, political pressure in the United States for quick results and a firm troop pullout date has become more intense than ever.
This snapshot of the early weeks of the operation, which officially began on Feb. 14, is drawn from American and Iraqi casualty data and interviews with military commanders and government officials.
In the northern and western provinces where they hold sway, and even in parts of Baghdad, Sunni Arab insurgents have sharpened their tactics, using more suicide car and vest bombs, and carrying out chlorine gas attacks.
Even as officials have sought to dampen the insurgency by trying to deal with Sunni Arab factions, those groups have become increasingly fractured. There are now at least a dozen major Sunni insurgent groups -- many fighting other Sunnis as well as the Americans and the Shi'ite-led government. 