BAGHDAD — Gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped about 30 Iraqis in Baghdad yesterday and the new US operational commander said more needed to be done to curb violence in the Iraqi capital.
“We have to change the dynamics that are going on in Baghdad. There is a lot of sectarian murder in Baghdad,” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said at a ceremony where he officially assumed day-to-day control of US troops in Iraq.
Iraqi police said gunmen traveling in 10 government cars and three pickup trucks descended on Sinak, an area in central Baghdad for stores selling car parts and agricultural equipment, and rounded up about 30 shopkeepers and bystanders. The gunmen did not appear to target any specific sectarian group, abducting both Shiites and Sunnis, police said.
“A number of army vehicles entered the car market and they took around 30 people and shot randomly at the people. They were wearing army uniforms,” witness Abu Jassim said. Baghdad is plagued by daily kidnappings, both political and criminal. In one of the biggest cases, men in camouflage uniforms abducted dozens of staff and visitors from the Higher Education Ministry last month. The ministry said yesterday that 56 were still officially recorded as missing.
In Khallisa, a religiously mixed town 30 km south of Baghdad, police found the bodies of 15 men near an irrigation canal in a date palm grove. All had been tortured and shot.
Odierno, known as a tough, blunt-speaking general, assumes his post as the No. 2 US military commander in Iraq at a key juncture in the US military occupation of Iraq. US President George W. Bush is weighing options in changing course in the unpopular war after his Republicans were defeated in the mid-term Congressional elections.
Odierno said key to addressing the violence was for the Iraqi government to decide what to do with militias, who UN officials said last month were operating with impunity and colluding with police in carrying out death squad killings.
The militias, along with Sunni insurgents, have been blamed for fueling a cycle of tit-for-tat killings that has killed thousands. Several are tied to parties within Maliki’s Shiite- led national unity government.
“There has to be a policy of what we are going to do with ... the militias, how we can reconcile them back into the Iraqi armed forces or other units. The Iraqi government has to make a decision,” Odierno told reporters.
“This is not just a military solution. It’s a combination of diplomatic, economic and military programs that have to move forward within Baghdad to get the security fixed.” His comments echoed a Washington Post report on Thursday that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are recommending a shift in the military focus in Iraq from battling insurgents to strengthening Iraqi forces along with a new emphasis on resolving political and economic issues.
The military chiefs do not favor a troop buildup in Iraq but see supporting and strengthening the Iraqi army as pivotal to stabilization, the Post said, citing sources familiar with the officials’ thinking.
Gunmen attacked the convoy of Iraq’s Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi in Baghdad yesterday, but there were no injuries, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
An aide to Mahdi denied any attack had occurred, saying the vice president was in his office.
