Thousands of United States, British and Iraqi troops swept through insurgent bastions south of Baghdad on Tuesday in the latest push to reclaim lawless enclaves ahead of elections planned for January.
The operation, in an area known as the ”triangle of death”, came as world powers and Middle Eastern states meeting in Egypt threw their weight behind the war-torn country’s first free and multi-party elections in decades.
US marines and an Iraqi SWAT team ”swept through the south-central Iraqi town of Jabella today, kicking off a fresh campaign in northern Babil province”, the US military said in a statement.
The offensive, dubbed Operation Plymouth Rock, involved more than 5 000 Iraqi, US and British forces and ”follows the swift seizure of the restive city of Fallujah”, the statement said.
It came as US-led forces wound down the largest post-war military offensive on Fallujah, which was seen as one of the main obstacles to holding elections.
”As the Iraqi people prepare to vote in nationwide elections in January, multinational forces are determined to capture or kill those who desire to destabilise the elections process,” the military said.
Another reason for the Fallujah operation was to capture Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose al-Qaeda-linked group was allegedly operating out of the city. But he is now believed to have escaped before the US-led assault began on November 8.
Iraqi security forces said on Tuesday they were focusing their hunt for Zarqawi, who has a $25-million US bounty on his head, on an area in north-central Iraq after receiving a tip-off.
Zarqawi’s group has claimed responsibility for many of the most ferocious attacks in Iraq, including car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of hostages.
Iraq was pressing ahead with preparations for January’s elections as world powers and Middle Eastern states, in a rare show of unity, threw their weight behind the ballot.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan termed the vote ”critical” to quell the violence in Iraq.
The chronic insecurity gripping Iraq since the US-led invasion that last year ousted Saddam Hussein but divided the world was ”the greatest impediment to a successful transition process”, he said.
His stand was enshrined in a declaration by the US, France and other Western states, the interim government in Iraq, as well as Iran, Turkey, several Arab countries, China and Russia at the close of an international conference on Iraq in an Egyptian resort.
Arab foreign ministers attending the conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh expressed misgivings about the viability of the January 30 election date.
But Iraqi officials insist the vote will be held as planned, with a deadline on Tuesday for political parties in the provinces to present their candidate lists.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Egypt that the elections would be held on time ”whatever the situation”. Iran’s Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi urged all Iraqi political and sectarian groups to take part in elections.
Iran, a strict Islamic republic which shares the same Muslim Shi’ite faith as the majority of Iraq’s population, stands to see its regional status boosted if Iraqi Shi’ites dominate the elections, which several Iraqi Sunni groups have threatened to boycott.
UN officials helping organise the vote — for a national assembly, a regional parliament for the Kurdish north and 18 provincial councils –also said they were optimistic.
”The situation is chaotic but people want a normal life and they know that only elections can improve the situation, even if disorder may continue after the vote,” Carlos Valenzuela, UN senior advisor to the Iraqi electoral commission, told reporters in Baghdad.
More than 60 Sunni Arab factions have threatened to boycott the polls because of what they see as the heavy-handed US crackdown on insurgents in Fallujah.
Sunnis, who make up a fifth of Iraq’s population, were the ruling elite under Saddam Hussein. But since last year’s US-led invasion, the majority Shi,ites have been flexing their political muscle and are set to be the dominant force in the Iraqi government if the elections are held.
The final communique from the Sharm-El-Sheikh conference stressed a UN role in preparing Iraq’s elections, condemned ”terrorism”, kidnapping and the murder of civilians, and urged cooperation or at least ”non-interference” from neighbouring countries. – Sapa-AFP