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Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.[From the Washington Post!] THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled...

Buried deep in this AP report, between news of a crackdown on al Qaeda in Mosul and a suicide bombing in Baqouba, is Nancy Pelosi's concession that the surge is succeeding. According to AP, the Speaker, who made a surprise visit to Iraq, "expressed confidence that expected provincial elections will promote national reconciliation." She also "welcomed Iraq's progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation, and a bill paving the way for the provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials." As Abe Greenwald points out, in February Pelosi said...

BAGHDAD (AP) - 0321dv-iraq-child-attacks Some 1,600 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers pushed into a dangerous Sunni Arab area of west Baghdad on Wednesday, searching houses in the expanding security crackdown, while at least 33 apparent victims of sectarian killings were found dumped across the capital. The U.S. military said the armor-backed force that swept into the Ghazaliyah and Amariyah neighborhoods detained 31 people and found two weapons caches that included containers of nitric acid and chlorine, a toxic material used recently by Sunni insurgents in bomb attacks. No casualties were reported during the first day of the operation, which included about...

Rules of engagement (ROE), highly criticized as being too restrictive and sometimes endangering our troops, have been "clarified." "There were unintended consequences with ROE for too long," Petraeus acknowledged. Because of what junior leaders perceived as too harsh punishment meted out to troops acting in the heat of battle, the ROE issued from the top commanders were second-guessed and made more restrictive by some on the ground. The end result was unnecessary - even harmful - restrictions placed on the troops in contact with the enemy. "I've made two things clear," Petraeus emphasized: "My ROE may not be modified with...

Yesterday was the 4 year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and predictably, al Qaeda conducted a concerted attack to mark the event. Al Qaeda, however, had to settle for Kirkuk, not Baghdad, for its show of force. As we noted yesterday, the Kirkuk attack was a coordinated car bomb and roadside bomb attack that cause massed casualties in the flash point city where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen are positioning for control over the city. Al Qaeda also struck at a Shia mosque in Baghdad. The two attacks generated the desired propaganda for al Qaeda, and also serve to stoke tensions...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki insisted sectarian killing had come to an end in his country, blaming ongoing daily violence on Al-Qaeda in a television interview Monday. "I would say that the sectarian killing is over," Maliki said, in comments to be broadcast Monday on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the United States-led and British-backed invasion of Iraq. "It threatened the breakout of a sectarian war, but this has been ended by two factors -- the first one is the national reconciliation on which we still insist. "The second thing is the ability of the security services in...

BAGHDAD (AP) - 0318dv-iraq-latest Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least six more U.S. troops over the weekend. A Sunni car bomber hit a largely Shiite district in the capital Sunday, killing at least eight people. The American military said four U.S. soldiers died and one was wounded when the unit was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. During the ongoing security sweep in the capital and surrounding regions, the soldiers' battalion had found eight weapons caches and two roadside bombs and helped rescue a kidnap victim, the military said. A...

BAGHDAD — A press conference concerning the progress of security in Diyala, Iraq was held via videoconference at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone Friday. Army Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and Maj. Gen. Shakir Halail Husain, 5th Iraqi Division commander, discussed increased enemy activity due to escalated Coalition and Iraqi security forces operations and the continuing effort to fight terrorism. “We have seen an increase on attacks against Coalition and Iraqi security forces in the past several months,” Sutherland said. “On the other hand, we have also seen...

The past 24 hours has seen three major developments: a triple chemical attack in Anbar province, Sadr called for resistance to the U.S. in Sadr City, and the implementation of the security plan in Diyala. There have been no major terror attacks inside Baghdad over the past day, and the sectarian violence still remains under control. Al Qaeda in Iraq has stepped up its campaign to destroy the tribal leaders of the Anbar Salvation Council in western Iraq. Al Qaeda conducted a triple chlorine gas suicide attack in Amiriya, Fallujah and Ramadi Two were killed and over 360 were poisoned...

The past 24 hours has seen some interesting developments in Iraq. Diyala has flared up as U.S. troops deployed to the region. Additional U.S. forces will be requested to support operations. Further, al Qaeda conducted some successful operations inside Baghdad, the Iraqi general leading the Baghdad operation was relieved of command and the U.S. is negotiating to dismantle elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army. As we noted in February, Diyala has become a focal point of combat operations as the Baghdad Security Plan is implemented. The U.S. Strykers from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment--about 700 soldiers and 100 of their...

Yesterday marked the first full month since the official commencement of the Baghdad Security Plan. During joint press conference with Major General William Caldwell Brigadier General Qassim Atta Al Mussawi, the Iraqi Army spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, noted the dramatic reduction in violence over the past month. According to Mussawi, over the past month, deaths are down by about 75 percent, terrorists killed up by over 80 percent and detentions of suspects up by 1000 percent: "A total of 265 civilians and 57 military men, including nine officers, have been killed since the plan kicked off February 14,"...

“Setting a date certain for withdrawal will send a chill up the spine of every Iraqi who has dared to stand with America.” Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding S. J. Res. 9, the latest Democrat proposal to set a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The following are his remarks from the floor. “Today, Senate Republicans will agree to move to a debate on an important question, and that question is this: Should a majority of Senators direct the activity of the War in Iraq? “Republicans are eager to engage...

Yet another 24 hours have past and there have been no reports of major mass casualty suicide or car bomb attacks in Baghdad or the provinces. The closest incident was a suicide attack which occurred in Tuz Khormato, a town about 130 miles north of Baghdad. Eight were killed and 25 wounded after a suicide attack in a crowded market. The last major attack occurred on Saturday. While the security operation is still in its infancy, and there is much work to be done, the short term signs are encouraging. One item to note: the four year anniversary of the...

General David Petraeus, the new top US commander in Iraq, made these points in separate interviews Monday with ABC News and USA Today: -- The peaceful move of US forces into the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City has been a "pleasant surprise." -- There are "encouraging indicators" in the Sunni Anbar province. -- There are worrying trends in the Diyala province that will force US forces to pay closer attention to that area. -- There is convincing evidence that Syria and Iran are helping anti-US forces in Iraq. -- There are reconcilable and irreconcilable political and militant forces in...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2007 – The Baghdad security plan has only been under way for a short time, but the Iraqis are meeting their commitments and early signs are pointing toward success, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. The most important measure of success in the new security plan is whether the Iraqis are meeting their commitments, such as appointing commanders for Baghdad, providing extra troops, and removing political restrictions from troops in the area, Gates said in an interview with the Pentagon Channel. “We can measure those things, and those are the areas where the Iraqis...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition Soldiers from eight brigade combat teams completed a nine-day sweep throughout Baghdad to disrupt the Baghdad vehicle borne improvised explosive device network on March 10. The operation was designed to attack the terrorist command and control structure organizing and financing the deadly car bomb attacks. Over the course of the operation which began March 2 Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces struck 82 precision targets. As a result, 24 terrorists were killed; four wounded and 90 suspected terrorists were detained. Several of those detained were members of Al-Qaeda. Coalition Forces also found or captured many weapons...

BAGHDAD, March 11 — Sunni militants burned homes in a mixed city northeast of Baghdad on Saturday and Sunday, forcing dozens of families to flee and raising the specter of a new intimidation tactic in Iraq’s evolving civil war, Iraqi officials and witnesses said. Militants also continued their campaign against Shiite pilgrims on Sunday, striking as the pilgrims returned home from the southern city of Karbala after observances there for the Arbaeen holiday over the weekend. The worst attack, a car bombing, killed at least 19 people in Baghdad as they were riding home from the south in a pickup...

The Baghdad Security Plan continues to show some encouraging signs of progress in reducing the levels of violence in the capital and in the provinces. The sectarian attacks have been reduced significantly. There have been no major suicide or carbomb attacks in Baghdad or the provinces over the past 48 hours. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been able to pull off five mass casualty attacks over the past nine days. Two were directed at security checkpoints inside Baghdad, two at pilgrims traveling to Karbala, and the last a bombing in a cafe in Balad Ruiz. During a nine day operation...

A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does. Leading journalists have been reporting for some time that the war was hopeless, a fiasco that could not be salvaged by more troops and a new counterinsurgency strategy. The conventional wisdom in December held that sending more troops was politically impossible after the antiwar tenor of the midterm elections. It was practically impossible because the extra troops didn't exist....

The 'where's Muqtada al-Sadr' saga continues as reports he gave a speech in Karbala last week have failed to stand the test of time. While Sadr's media mouthpiece Nahrain Network claimed he was in Karbala, some of his officials have denied Sadr was present, reports IraqSlogger. "'Slogger sources were also unaware of any appearance by the cleric, which, they say, would not have gone unnoticed by the residents of the city." Sadr has been spotted in Qom being guarded by the members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. In an effort to undermine Sadr's power, Iraqi and U.S. forces are...