BAGHDAD, 21 September 2007 — A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol yesterday, killing one officer and wounding four others and a civilian, a police official said. The explosion took place at 05:10 GMT near the Al-Shaab Stadium in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the media.
Meanwhile, the US military said that a joint raid early yesterday by Iraqi special forces and US troops that included helicopter gunships in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City led to the detention of seven Shiite extremists. Sadr City is a teeming eastern slum in the Iraqi capital, controlled by the Mehdi Army militia loyal to Moqtada Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric known for his anti-American stance.
The troops were looking for a high-level Shiite suspect, when “several armed individuals were spotted on the rooftops of nearby buildings,” the military statement said. US helicopter gunships were called in to “provide suppressive fire, allowing the forces to continue” their search, the military said.
After the detention of the seven militants, the joint mission was ambushed by several insurgents, the military added. An Iraqi soldier was wounded in the shooting but his injuries were not life threatening, the statement said. AP Television News footage showed scenes of a mangled car and a building peppered with shrapnel holes, its doors and windows blown out, in the Sadr City neighborhood. Residents said 12 cars were also damaged.
Sabriah Kadom said her husband, Mansi Hafiz, was wounded in the stomach by shrapnel while sleeping outside in their garden in the warm summer night. “He sleeps in the garden because of the hot whether,” Kadom said. “Helicopters opened fire on us and nearby houses, and on a parking lot in front of our house.” Another woman, Makiyah Abdul Hassan, claimed that money and jewelry were stolen from her home by Iraqi soldiers taking part in the raid.
But the No. 2 US commander in Iraq said yesterday that a 7-month-old security operation has reduced violence by 50 percent in Baghdad but he acknowledged that civilians were still dying at too high a rate. The comments came as relations between the US and Iraqi governments remained strained in the wake of Sunday’s shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards, which Iraqi officials said left at least 11 people dead.
Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki suggested the US Embassy find another company to protect its diplomats. The North Carolina-based company has said its employees acted “lawfully and appropriately” in response to an armed attack against a State Department convoy.
But a survivor who said he was three cars away from the convoy denied the American guards were under fire, claiming they apparently started shooting to disperse more than two dozen cars that were stuck in a traffic jam.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters that car bombs and suicide attacks in Baghdad have fallen to their lowest level in a year, and civilian casualties have dropped from a high of about 32 to 12 per day. He also said violence in Baghdad had seen a 50 percent decrease, although he did not provide details about how the numbers were obtained and said that was short of the military’s objectives.
