Qaeda defeated in Baghdad: Iraqi PM Feb 15 01:25 PM US/Eastern
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proclaimed on Friday that Al-Qaeda had been routed in Baghdad thanks to a security plan launched a year ago, and would soon be defeated throughout the country.
"Thank God, we destroyed the cells of Al-Qaeda. They have been chased out of Baghdad and this has opened the way for their defeat throughout Iraq," Maliki said at a ceremony marking the launch on February 14 last year of the Baghdad security plan, known as Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law).
"Today our forces are locked in battle against outlaws in Nineveh and we are chasing them," he added, referring to the northern province where Iraqi officials say Al-Qaeda has regrouped after fleeing Baghdad.
Maliki on January 25 announced a "decisive battle" against Al-Qaeda in Nineveh province, and sent troop and police reinforcements to the provincial capital Mosul, which the US military says is the last urban stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The prime minister thanked "all those who helped make the security plan a success and who saved the country from the miserable situation it was in due to Al-Qaeda's violence and terrorism."
To mark the anniversary of the launch of Fardh al-Qanoon, he laid a wreath at the monument to the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad at a ceremony attended by the defence and interior ministers and other Iraqi officials.
The launch of Fardh al-Qanoon coincided with the start of a "surge" of an extra 30,000 US troops in Iraq, which has
helped reduce the number of bombings in the capital, while the streets are no longer theatres for violent clashes between insurgents and the security forces.
The decrease in violence is being experienced elsewhere as well, with US and Iraqi officials saying that attacks across the country are down 62 percent since June while the number of Iraqis -- civilians and security force members -- killed in January 2008 was 541 against 2,087 in the same month in 2007.
But recent attacks in Baghdad, including twin blasts in the city centre which targeted a meeting of tribal leaders and killed 19 people, have shown just how fragile the security situation is.
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