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Operation Imposing Law

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Operation Law and Order
Part of the Post-invasion Iraq

An Iraqi and American soldier conducting a raid in Baghdad.
DateFebruary 14 2007–
Location
Baghdad, Iraq
Result Ongoing
Belligerents
United States United States Army
New Iraqi Army		 Iraqi insurgency
Commanders and leaders
Abboud Qanbar
United States David Petraeus		 unknown
Strength
~90,000 [1] unknown
Casualties and losses
146 KIA, 440+ WIA (US)[2]
313 killed (Iraqi Security Forces)		 352 killed (58 bombers)[3],
~2,500 captured
(not all insurgents)
3,479 civilians killed (by May 30)[4][5]

Operation Law and Order (Template:Lang-ar عملية القانون والنظام "'amaliiah al-qaanoon wa an-nazaam), or Baghdad Security Plan(BSP), is a joint Coalition-Iraqi security plan conducted throughout Baghdad. Under the Surge plan developed in late 2006, Baghdad is to be divided into nine zones, with Iraqi and American soldiers working side-by-side to clear each sector of Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents and establish Joint Security Stations so that reconstruction programs can begin in safety. The U.S. military commander in Iraq, David Petraeus, has gone so far as to say Iraq will be "doomed" if this current plan fails.[6] Numerous members of Congress have stated the plan is a critical period for the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Background

The operation is being led by Iraqi General Abboud Qanbar, who was a compromise choice, because the first general that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, a member of the Islamic Dawa Party, offered to head the operation was rejected by the U.S. Army. On the first day of the operation new checkpoints were erected and increased vehicle inspections and foot patrols were reported in some neighborhoods. The operation will be a major neighborhood-to-neighborhood sweep to quell sectarian violence in the city of 6 million.

This joint Iraqi and U.S. operation was originally referred to as "Operation Imposing Law" by Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki and U.S. generals. However, this name for the operation appears to have fallen from official favor, probably because its acronym, O.I.L., could be politically awkward for the United States, which has been accused of being involved in Iraq primarily to ensure a secure source of petroleum.[7]

The Operation

In conducting the Baghdad Security Plan (BSP) (Fardh al-Qanoon in Arabic), coalition forces have "erected security walls around public gathering spots like markets, rounded up weapons caches, and detained suspected Sunni insurgents and Shiite death squads" as well as set up "'joint security sites' and even smaller 'combat outposts'."[1]

Coalition military order of battle

Description of the plan

In a February 16, 2007, press conference, United States Major General Joseph Fil described the operational design of the Baghdad Security Plan as follows:

"This new plan involves three basic parts: clear, control and retain. The first objective within each of the security districts in the Iraqi capital is to clear out extremist elements neighborhood by neighborhood in an effort to protect the population. And after an area is cleared, we’re moving to what we call the control operation. Together with our Iraqi counterparts, we’ll maintain a full-time presence on the streets, and we’ll do this by building and maintaining joint security stations throughout the city. This effort to re-establish the joint security stations is well under way. The number of stations in each district will be determined by the commanders on the ground who control that area. An area moves into the retain phase when the Iraqi security forces are fully responsible for the day-to-day security mission. At this point, coalition forces begin to move out of the neighborhood and into locations where they can respond to requests for assistance as needed. During these three phrases, efforts will be ongoing to stimulate local economies by creating employment opportunities, initiating reconstruction projects and improving the infrastructure. These efforts will be spearheaded by neighborhood advisory councils, district advisory councils and the government of Iraq." [2]

Security districts

The nine Baghdad security districts correspond to Baghdad administrative districts and are named as follows:

  • Adhamiyah
  • Karkh
  • Karadah (Kharadah)
  • Kadhimyah
  • Mansour
  • Sadr City (Thawr)
  • Rasheed
  • Rusafa
  • Tisa Nissan (9 Nissan)

Joint Security Stations

The Joint Security Sites (JSS, also known as Joint Security Stations) [3] are occupied by both the Iraqi Security Forces as well as Provincial Police. In some cases, Combat Outposts (COP) are enlarged to become JSS. As of April 12, MG William Caldwell IV announced that fifty-four of the 75 outposts and stations are operating in the capital, and the number could rise to 102 [4]

JSS are planned to be set up in the following neighborhoods:

February developments

On the second day of the operation U.S. and Iraqi forces pushed deeper into Sunni militant strongholds in Baghdad, mainly the Doura district in the south, where car-bombs were set off in their advance. In two incidents, car-bombs blew up as U.S. and Iraqi patrols passed and there were at least four civilian casualties. The operation began with very little resistance, and was hailed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a "brilliant success." [8] There was a steep decline in violence during the first few days, but American Generals were more cautious about making judgments on its success early on, stating that the results will be seen over the course of months.

On February 17, Iraqi Army spokesman Qasim al-Musawi announced that attacks and killings in Baghdad had already declined by 80%. He also added that the Baghdad morgue usually received 40-50 bodies per day but had received only 20 in the past 48 hours. [9]

On February 18, car bombings in a crowded market killed 63, which was the first major bombing since the security plan went in place. [10] The insurgent counter attack continued the next day as bombs continued to go off in Baghdad and a U.S. post was destroyed by a bombing which killed two troops and wounded 29. [11]

On February 24, the Iraqi Prime Minister stated that 400 militants were killed in the operation which was contradictory to the statement given two days before by a senior Iraqi Brigadier, General Qassim Atta al-Mussawi, who said 42 militants where killed and 246 captured. On the same day the Prime Minister gave the statement, insurgents stormed an Iraqi police checkpoint near Baghdad International airport, killing eight policemen. Also, two suicide bombers struck in Baghdad, one in the southern part killing one person and another outside the SCIRI compound killing three.

The next day a female bomber killed at least 41 and wounded 50 at Baghdad’s Mustansiriyah University, while several Katyusha rockets simultaneously killed at least a dozen in a Shiite neighborhood and a bomb detonated near the Green Zone killing two and wounded a dozen civilians. [12] The leader of the Mahdi Army, which is one of the groups that is being targeted, Muqtada al-Sadr, said on the day of the University bombing that bombs "continue to explode" in Baghdad and that the security operation is doomed.[citation needed]

On February 25, the Iraqi military announced that during heavy fighting in Baghdad, 13 Iraqi soldiers, including one officer, and 11 militants were killed and 219 militants were captured. [13][14]

The next day another chilling reminder of the insurgency's grip on Baghdad showed when a bomb under the podium, where the Sunni Iraqi Vice President was making a speech, exploded. The bombing happened in the Mansour district while Adel Abdul-Mahdi was talking to municipal officials. The bomb missed him by a minute as he had just finished the speech and left the podium. The explosion left Abdul-Mahdi injured and at least 10 people dead.[15]

March developments

On March 3, insurgents captured Iraqi Lieutenant General Thamer Sultan. Sultan was working as an adviser to the Iraqi Defence Minister, and he himself was considered to take up that post in the coming months. Sultan, a Sunni, was a general during Saddam's era.[16] He was rescued the next day when Iraqi agents stormed a house in western Baghdad where he was being held and four of his captors were arrested.

On March 4, U.S. and Iraqi forces entered Sadr City, the primary stronghold of the Mahdi Army.

On March 5, a suicide bomber killed 38 and wounded 105 civilians at a Baghdad book market.[17]

U.S. soldiers take cover during a firefight with insurgents in the Al Doura section of Baghdad March 7, 2007

On March 7, the Pentagon issued an order that an extra 2,200 military police be sent to Baghdad because of the growing number of captured insurgents. The same day a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad killing 12 police commandos and 10 civilians.

On March 8, General David Petraeus stated that: "There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq." He went on to say that a political solution was necessary in addition to the enhanced security operation in Iraq, and that the process of establishing peace would take months.[14]

On March 15, the Iraqi military said that since the start of the operation 265 civilians were killed in Baghdad in comparison to 1,440 the month before the start of the operation. Also they stated that there was significant reduction in assassinations and kidnappings, and the mortar attacks were down by 50 percent but roadside and car bombings remain at a high level. The Iraqi military said that "the statistics are key indications that the security crackdown is bearing fruit".[18]

By March 17 a total of 15 joint US-Iraqi security stations were set up in Baghdad. Another 15 are planned to be built. Of the 15 that were built one was almost destroyed in an insurgent attack in the first days of the operation and another three are besieged by insurgents. On March 21 the Washington post reported on the precarious conditions of many of the new outposts.[19] The subsequent day several artillery rounds were fired into Al Malaki's office nearly striking the prime minister and the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.[20]

On March 23, the deputy prime minister Salam Al-Zubaie was seriously injured in a mosque suicide bombing.[21] It was thought it was an inside job just like the attempt on the Vice President the previous month.

On March 24, a massive suicide truck bombing completely destroyed a police station killing 33 police officers and wounding 44 others, including 20 policemen, in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Doura.[22] Heavy fighting continued the next day in the city with another 12 members of the Iraqi security forces killed and 26 more wounded, 6 insurgents were killed.

On March 24, also, heavy mortar and rocket attacks opened up on the heavily fortified Green Zone. These attacks were some of the most sustained attacks on the Green Zone during the war. By March 29, one American soldier and one American contractor were killed in the shelling and another 15 people were wounded, some seriously.

File:A070403b hires.jpg
U.S. soldiers find a weapons cache March 31, 2007

Results by the end of March

By the end of March, despite claims by the Iraqi government that the situation is improving in Baghdad and the rest of the country thanks to the operation, Sunni insurgents continue to inflict massive casualties on Iraqi security forces and civilians, as well as U.S. forces with a constant rate of three soldiers dying per day for the past six months. During the month of March, more than 2,400 civilians were killed as well as more than 300 members of the Army and police forces in the whole country. However, over 1,000 suspected insurgents were captured and many weapons caches were discovered. The government stated that tens of thousands of Iraqis are returning to Baghdad and their old neighborhoods because the security situation has improved and the rate of families leaving the city has also dropped from 350 to 25 families per day. But according to an article published by Newsweek, the situation on the ground is in contrast to what is said: only a handful of Iraqi families have returned to their homes, and most of them have only done so because of payments from the Iraqi government. According to the Newsweek article, the government is offering a bounty of 250,000 dinars to each family that returns to its home, and they also pay a small benefit to families who are displaced. [23]

Only about 40% of the reinforcements are currently in place. The U.S. command has stated that killings from death squads are going down notwithstanding the continued bombings. By the end of March, a total of 2,762 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, a small 3.6% decrease on the monthly death toll from before the crackdown, when 2,864 were killed.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell has expressed disappointment at the high level of violence in Iraq despite a drop in the overall death toll in Baghdad during the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep that has entered its eighth week.

April developments

The month of April saw more intense fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents in and around Baghdad. The rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his Mahdi Army to stop attacking the Iraqi security forces and redouble their efforts to attack American and other foreign forces. In the first nine days of April, 22 American soldiers were killed in fighting in and around Baghdad alone. In the whole country 43 American and 6 British soldiers were killed in the first nine days of April at a rate of around 5 soldiers per day.

April 10th saw some of the most intense street fighting of the operation when U.S. and Iraqi troops encountered heavily armed Iraqi insurgents in the Fadhil district during a routine search operation. Apache attack helicopters were called in but most of them had to return to base because the anti-aircraft fire they received was too heavy. In the daylong battle that ensued 4 Iraqi Army soldiers, 14 insurgents and one child were killed, 16 American soldiers were wounded, including one Apache pilot, and three Apache and one Black Hawk helicopter were damaged enough that they had to return to base in mid-battle.[24]

File:Capt.sge.ohh05.120407150602.photo02.photo.default-512x278.jpg
U.S. soldiers secure the area at Baghdad's collapsed Al-Sarafiya bridge which was destroyed in a suicide truck bombing April 12, 2007

Two days later an insurgent suicide truck bomb attack destroyed the main bridge in the north Baghdad Waziriyah district. The bridge spanning over the Tigris River had been the primary transit point for United States vehicles operating in north Baghdad.[25] In the same day insurgents managed to penetrate the extensive security and fortifications of U.S.-protected Green Zone and detonate a suicide bomb in the Iraqi parliament. The resulting blast killed one member of parliament, with seven more lawmakers being seriously wounded by the blast.[26]

As the offensive entered its second month, on April 12 reports indicated that 1,586 civilians were killed in Baghdad since the start of the offensive which represented a sharp drop from the 2,871 civilians who died violently in the capital during the two months that preceded the security crackdown.[27] However, various reports over the next twelve days indicated another rise in sectarian killings, beside the daily car bombings that have been taking a heavy toll on civilians since the start of the operation, with more than 540 civilians being killed in Baghdad.

Deaths outside of Baghdad increased as militants were flushed out of the city, with 1,504 civilians deaths reported compared with 1,009 deaths during the two months preceding the operation. Overall, the total reported civilian dead in Iraq decreased by about 20%. [28]

On April 16, cabinet members, who belonged to the Mahdi Army and held three ministries, quit the government on the orders from al-Sadr, in response to growing insecurity in Baghdad and the refusal of al-Maliki's government to set a timetable for the American military withdrawal. The Maliki government said that this will not bring down the government and new replacements will be appointed who will work to unify the Iraqi people.

File:Baghdad-bombings.jpg
Plumes of smoke are seen from one of the devastating car bombings in Baghdad April 18, 2007

On April 18, five massive car bombs, including two suicide bombers, exploded in mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad killing 198 people and wounding 251 others. The deadliest was in the mainly Shiite Sadriyah neighborhood in an attack on a market, which had already been hit by car bombs in previous attacks, where 140 people were killed and 148 were wounded. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army colonel who was in charge of security in the area around the Sadriyah market. On the national level the Associated Press reported nearly 240 confirmed civilian fatalities making it the deadliest day since The Associated Press began recording daily nationwide deaths in May 2005.[29]The Department of Defense said the following, "It's been a very bad day in Iraq, obviously, with the number of casualties that have taken place. ... But we've always said that there are going to be good days and bad days ahead. With respect to casualties, this had been a very bad day," according to their spokesman, Bryan Whitman.[30]

On April 25, the UN said that despite the initial drop in violence civilian deaths and violence in Baghdad had not dropped.[31]

By the end of April more than 300 members of the Iraqi security forces, around 100 U.S. soldiers and around a dozen British servicemen are reported to have been killed in the whole country during that month.[32]

May developments

On May 2, 2007 another U.S. military brigade with around 3,700 soldiers arrived in Baghdad as reinforcements.

On May 3, 2007 a heavy rocket barrage hit the fortified Green Zone killing four Filipino contractors working for the U.S. government. This happened after three straight days of rocket and mortar attacks on the Green Zone.[33] Also, on the same day, Colonel B.D.Farris, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was wounded by small arms fire and taken out of action while conducting a survey of the barrier being built around a Sunni neighborhood on May 1st.[34]

From May 1, 2007 to May 11, 2007 a total of 234 bodies were dumped around Baghdad, up 70.8 percent from the 137 bodies dumped around the capital during the first 11 days of April. It clearly showed that the Mahdi Army and the Shia death squads were back in action after the self-imposed ceasefire they went into with the start of the operation back in February.[35]

On May 18, 2007 U.S. forces were involved in clashes in northern Baghdad in which they killed Azhar al-Dulaimi, the mastermind behind the Karbala raid in which five U.S. soldiers were killed by Iraqi insurgent commandos, four of which were first captured and then later executed.[36]

Fighting in Babil province

Mid-April operations expanded south to the so-called "Triangle of Death" in Babil province that borders the southern part of Baghdad. In one month U.S. troops suffered heavy casualties during the fighting in Babil, including 20 killed and 3 captured.

On May 23, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that as the surge troop strength reaches peak levels this summer, he expects the insurgents and terrorists in Iraq to accelerate their bombings and other attacks in order to influence US decision-makers to withdraw troops. [15]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/middle-east/article2269547.ece
  2. ^ http://icasualties.org/oif/prdDetails.aspx?hndRef=2-2007
  3. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/14/iraq.main/index.html
  4. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_ap_tally
  5. ^ http://www.newsobserver.com/505/story/567684.html
  6. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17079786/
  7. ^ http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070125-102020-4309r.htm
  8. ^ http://www.thanhniennews.com/worlds/?catid=9&newsid=25334
  9. ^ http://khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/February/focusoniraq_February135.xml&section=focusoniraq
  10. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/18/iraq.main/
  11. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17224668/
  12. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17326397/
  13. ^ http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=38120&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
  14. ^ http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM539768.htm
  15. ^ http://www.topix.net/content/cbs/2018562855210662370810810906841309832232
  16. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070303/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestkidnap_070303162044
  17. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070306/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
  18. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/14/iraq.main/index.html
  19. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17728595/
  20. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17733486/
  21. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5971930/
  22. ^ http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10893&Itemid=21
  23. ^ http://checkpointbaghdad.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=539953
  24. ^ U.S. says 14 gunmen killed in Baghdad battle, Reuters
  25. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18033283/
  26. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18072203/?GT1=9246
  27. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_ap_tally
  28. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_ap_tally
  29. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169833/
  30. ^ http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20070419p2g00m0in005000c.html
  31. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18304676/
  32. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301561.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/iraq
  33. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6604876,00.html
  34. ^ http://icasualties.org/oif/20070507-04.pdf
  35. ^ http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Death_squad_activity_up_40_percent_0514.html
  36. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6675935.stm
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