Iraqi security leader calls for intel boost

[unhappycamper]

Iraqi security leader calls for intel boost
By Sinan Salaheddin - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 14, 2009 13:38:02 EDT

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s top security official called Saturday for a shift from major military operations to a “war of intelligence” to track down remaining extremist cells responsible for attacks such as those that killed 60 people in the past week in the Baghdad area.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani also warned that his ministry has been forced to put on hold some of its plans to recruit more police due to cuts in the government’s 2009 budget prompted by plummeting oil prices.

Al-Bolani’s call came after suicide bombers struck twice — once March 8 near the Baghdad police academy and again Tuesday in an attack targeting Sunni and Shiite sheiks touring an outdoor market after a reconciliation meeting.

A total of about 60 people were killed in the two attacks, which followed weeks of relative calm in the capital.

In an interview with The Associated Press, al-Bolani said it appears that al-Qaida in Iraq is unleashing sleeper cells in a bid to reassert itself after being routed in recent U.S.-Iraqi military operations. He said the key to defeating the insurgents lies in better intelligence, not more wide-scale fighting.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_iraq_intelligence_031409/%2e