Security operation intensifies in Baghdad, as car bombings continue . . .

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staying the course, moving forward . . .


2/15/2007 10:56:02 AM

U.S. and Iraqi troops moved into a Sunni neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Thursday, while insurgents struck back with car bombs that killed seven people. In southern Iraq, British troops sealed off the border with Iran to prevent weapons smuggling.

Helicopters buzzed overhead as a joint U.S.-Iraqi force headed into the Dora neighborhood - a longtime Sunni militant area - on the second day of a long-awaited security operation in the capital, according to Iraqi officials. U.S. troops searched three Shiite areas Wednesday, meeting little resistance in house-to-house searches.

The Interior Ministry also said U.S. and Iraqi forces were sweeping through four main districts, including Sunni and Shiite areas, seizing weapons and ammunitions.

Defying the operation, two parked car bombs struck Dora near a major intersection with a highway leading to Shiite areas in the south, killing at least four civilians and wounding 15, police said. Oranges and other fruit from stalls at a nearby market were scattered among debris near the charred cars.

The blasts occurred about 80 yards from an Iraqi checkpoint on the southern edge of the district as patrols were passing, but no Iraqi forces were reported hurt.

Later, a car bomb exploded in the northeastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, killing three and injuring 17 others, police said.

In another attack, a car packed with explosives targeted an Iraqi patrol in the Sunni district of Jamiaa in western Baghdad, wounding two soldiers, while clashes erupted in another volatile Sunni area, leading to four arrests, police said.


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