Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria as United States and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad on Thursday, setting up more checkpoints that stopped and searched even official convoys for weapons.
Residents of Sadr City, stronghold of the Mehdi Army of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, reported seeing fewer militiamen on the streets. The whereabouts of Sadr himself remained a mystery — US officials said he was in Iran, but his aides insisted he was in Iraq’s holy Shi’ite city of Najaf.
An Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the closure of Iraq’s four border crossings with Iran and two with Syria took effect on Wednesday.
US officials have long accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its long, porous border into Iraq, and on the weekend presented evidence of what they said were Iranian-manufactured weapons being smuggled into Iraq.
”The plan to close the borders went into effect last night. Many points were closed, but I can’t confirm that all were shut,” US military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told Reuters.
Iraq had said it would shut the borders for 72 hours. The US military said on Wednesday border checkpoints were to be revamped to establish ”transfer points” to search vehicles.
A British military spokesperson, Major David Gell, said two Iranian border crossings, in Basra and Maysan provinces, had been sealed by British and Iraqi forces.
The closures came as thousands of US and Iraqi troops stepped up operations in a new offensive in Baghdad, the epicentre of sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi’ites that has pitched the country toward civil war.
The operation aims to clear Baghdad’s neighbourhoods of militants and weapons and then secure them in a bid to break the power of Shi’ite militias and Sunni insurgents who have turned the capital’s streets into killing fields.
But military analysts say the advance publicity given to the Baghdad security plan means many militiamen are likely to have left Baghdad or are lying low until the operation is completed, rather than seek confrontation with security forces.
Residents said the Mehdi Army certainly appeared to be keeping a lower profile and there were reports that several commanders had fled the capital. The US has identified the militia as the greatest threat to peace in Iraq and hundreds of Mehdi Army members have been arrested.
The US military and Iraqi government officials have said Sadr himself left Iraq for Iran ahead of the crackdown, but aides repeated again on Thursday that he was still in Iraq.
Sadr was in a secret location in Najaf, a senior Sadr official, Salam al-Maliki told Reuters.
He said the Sadrists backed the new security clampdown, but ”some of the brothers who are wanted by the Americans have moved house because we’ve been targeted before”.
Stop and search
Operation Imposing Law is seen as a last-ditch effort to stabilise the capital. Shi’ite officials have warned that failure could mean a collapse of the Shi’ite-led government. US President George Bush is sending more than 17 000 additional troops for the crackdown.
More checkpoints appeared overnight and residents reported that even official government or security convoys were stopped and asked for weapons permits and identification papers.
”I’d rather suffer from traffic jams than explosions. I am really happy they have finally decided to check all vehicles, including government convoys,” said Hussein, the 21-year-old owner of a computer software shop.
A Reuters photographer said only people with Interior and Defence Ministry badges were allowed to keep their weapons.
Civilians with permits still had their guns seized. He saw two people arrested for not having identification documents.
Police officers and soldiers searched vehicles thoroughly, using long metal rods to prod piles of vegetables to look for bombs or weapons. The city is blighted by daily car bombings that have killed thousands.
Similar operations in the past have ended in failure, partly because Shi’ite militias tied to parties within the government were seen as off-limits, but Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said this time militants will be targeted regardless of their religious affiliation. — Reuters