Online NewsHour: Update | Violence Mounts in Iraq | October 4, 2006

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REGION: Middle East

TOPIC: Military

Online NewsHour

Originally Aired: October 4, 2006


	Iraqi Police Investigated for Possible Ties to Mass Kidnapping

	A 700-member Iraqi police squad has been barred from duty because of suspected links to the kidnapping of 24 workers that occurred earlier in the week. A reporter provides an update on the situation.

GWEN IFILL: Now, two looks at the violence in Iraq. In addition to the sectarian killings of Iraqi civilians, the past five days have been especially bloody for U.S. troops. For an on-the-ground look at these and other developments, I spoke earlier today with Richard Oppel of the New York Times in Baghdad.

Rich Oppel, welcome. We're hearing from at least one senior commander in Iraq that this has been a very hard week. By my count, eight U.S. soldiers killed in the last 24-hour period, 15 since Saturday, 74 in the month of September. Is there any concern being expressed about why these numbers seem to be spiking?

RICHARD OPPEL, New York Times: Well, that's right, Gwen. In fact, we just received word that there were an additional four deaths north of Baghdad today, all American soldiers. Earlier today, the top American spokesman in Iraq, General William Caldwell, said there had been 18 deaths in 96 hours, plus now there's four more that have just been reported.

I think the perspective here is that, with this operation that the Americans started about six or seven weeks ago, or nearly two months ago, to go through and try to clean out some of the worst Baghdad neighborhoods, that that has exposed troops more and that there's a direct linkage to this increase in deaths that we've seen.

GWEN IFILL: Is this increase limited to Baghdad, or is it also in other areas, like Ramadi and other areas throughout the country?

RICHARD OPPEL: Well, certainly, Ramadi and all of Anbar Province have continued to see a high number of deaths. I think the number of Marines in Anbar just in the last few days has been at least five, so that's been the case there for some time. Anbar remains, as much of Iraq is, a phenomenally dangerous region.

But I think -- I'm not sure of the precise numbers -- but I think certainly in Baghdad there's been a spike. I mean, the death count Monday in Baghdad of eight, that was the highest single-day total for Baghdad in about 13 months.

GWEN IFILL: Is there any thought being given to part of this being because Americans are being targeted as part of some new strategy?

RICHARD OPPEL: Well, al-Qaida, in their statements over the Internet, they've called on their fighters to increase the targeting of Americans. But, you know, the American strategy has been to slowly attempt to get Iraqi troops more in fore, more on the frontlines.

But certainly with this operation in Baghdad that's been under way since August 7th, that's called for more American exposure and more American troops doing frontline fighting here in the capital. And that's certainly part of the reason that we've seen this spike.

Ties with death squads

GWEN IFILL: Now, you talk about American exposure. There's also been much discussion about getting Iraqi forces ready to take over some of these security duties, yet we read today that at least one major Iraqi unit, of the Iraqi police, have been pulled off the streets?

RICHARD OPPEL: That's right, Gwen. As we understand it, it's about 700 members were pulled off. The Americans describe it as that they believe that there's possible complicity with death squads.

They haven't given many other details; however, Iraqi officials are saying that some of this may be related to the kidnapping a couple days ago of 26 food processing workers in Amal, a predominantly Sunni area of western Baghdad. A few hours after that kidnapping occurred, either seven or 10 -- we've heard two different reports on it -- of the victims were turned up dead in southern Baghdad, and most of the rest remain unaccounted for.

GWEN IFILL: When you say "possible complicity," does that mean that there are people who have infiltrated the ranks of these police trainees or that they just haven't been trained properly?

RICHARD OPPEL: As I understand it, it's much more of a training issue. It's more an issue of allowing death squads free passage through their area or even greater complicity than that.

Returning security to Baghdad

GWEN IFILL: So is there any talk about what the U.S. can do about this, whether it's withholding U.S. money for training, whether it's somehow sitting down with partners and trying to get this done right?

RICHARD OPPEL: Well, there are a couple different things going on, on that front. You know, the situation has gotten worse and worse here. People in Baghdad, residents here, talk more and more about how endangered they feel, just because they're either Shiite or Sunni, and many times people are being killed simply because they're either Shiite or Sunni and they run into the wrong militia or the wrong checkpoint.

Senior military officials in the last week or two have increasingly voiced concern about this and about the inability of the government to do anything about militias. They've said that something needs to be done in a much more forceful manner by the Iraqi government.

On one specific case, a case of where we had clear evidence of torture and abuse at a prison run by national police, a prison called Site 4 just last week, the American ambassador here, Zalmay Khalilzad, informed senior Iraqi officials that there's a federal law in the United States that prohibits aid from going to foreign security forces that are complicit in human rights violations and who are not brought to justice. And he raised that issue with them, and it's something that could lead to a cut-off if something is not done in that case.

Also, the prime minister announced a fairly ill-defined proposal two nights ago to create local neighborhood committees that would try to arbitrate some sectarian disputes and bring civilians and citizens in closer touch with the Iraqi security forces.

GWEN IFILL: So we're still waiting to hear the details of that plan?

RICHARD OPPEL: That's right. The plan didn't specifically outline how they would deal with militias and what the strategy was beyond that, so we're still waiting to hear more details of that.

GWEN IFILL: All right, Rich Oppel, thank you very much for joining us.

RICHARD OPPEL: Thanks very much, Gwen. It's good to be here.


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