War by slogan: “Operation Law and Order” (AKA "Operation Kick Your Door In") now in effect in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/February/focusoniraq_February114.xml§ion=focusoniraq

Iraq launches Baghdad security crackdown
(AFP)

15 February 2007


BAGHDAD - Iraq imposed draconian new security rules on its war-torn capital on Wednesday as US President George W. Bush accused Iranian agents of supplying weapons that have killed scores of American troops.

The plan -- now dubbed “Fard al-Qanun” or “Operation Law and Order” -- swung into effect with thousands of Iraqi troops throwing up roadblocks and carrying out searches across the city as US jet bombers roared overheard.

Political tensions were also running high, with supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr denying a claim by the US military that the figurehead of the feared Mahdi Army militia had fled across the border to Iran.

“Today, the Baghdad security plan is in effect. There will be no safe haven for outlaws, even in holy places, because human life is holier,” Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said during a visit to the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Under a decree issued Tuesday by Maliki’s operational commander, a joint Iraqi police and military force will have sweeping new emergency-style powers to deal with unrest in Baghdad, a city steeped in sectarian bloodletting.

Nevertheless, US officers and Bush himself warned that the plan -- which by May will see 84,000 American and Iraqi personnel in the neighbourhoods and streets of Baghdad -- would take time to turn back the tide of violence.

“It’s a plan that’s beginning to take shape,” Bush said at his first press conference of 2007, cautioning that “the operation to secure Baghdad is going to take time, and there will be violence.

[EFerrari]

1. There are no words for these mofos that are bad enough.

Later we'll find out how many elderly people and women and children got killed.