US commanders have declared their security crackdown in Baghdad a contest for the future of the entire country, but many in the capital have a hard time believing anything can save their city from further bloodshed.
General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, said this week Operation Together Forward has brought "great progress," noting an extra 12,000 US and Iraqi troops on the street had eased insurgent and sectarian violence.
But boosting morale on the streets, where tracts of Baghdad have become ghost towns even by day, will require a lot more than an uptick in statistics on rebel deaths and weapons seized.
Row upon row of shops stand shuttered along the main street of Mansour, once a thriving, upscale commercial district with salons, boutiques, jewellery stores and pastry shops all a few streets away from most of Baghdad's embassies.
Al Sa'aa, one of the city's most popular restaurants, is still operating there. But its staff say gunmen have killed seven people on their street in the last two weeks alone, prompting more people to padlock their businesses.
Down the street, grocery store owner Alaa Mohammed explains why he fled to Syria, before coming back in the hope of getting his business going again: "Gunmen just walked up to that toy store and killed the owner and his brother. I saw them. They were in normal clothes. It was very easy," he said before pointing to three other shops whose owners have been slain.
US troops have taken control of four of the previously most violent districts, hoping to provide a basis on which Iraqis can take charge. Residual attacks target mostly US-led coalition forces and the Iraqi police or army, US Army Colonel Robert Scurlock, a ground commander in Iraq, told reporters in Washington by video link. The three-week-old clampdown has not convinced shopkeeper Imad Fadil he will be safe anytime soon.
Operation Together Forward is designed to show Iraqis that their local forces are taking charge. But police commandos stationed between two rebel strongholds seemed in little mood to fight insurgents who have killed thousands of their comrades. Operation Forward Together has dramatically reduced violence in some particularly tense neighbourhoods.
The number of attacks in Baghdad has fallen 41 percent since the crackdown began from an average of 52 daily in July, Scurlock said. Murders in the Ameriyah area dropped from 29 in the 30 days before the crackdown to three since, he said.
INSURGENTS KILL NINE:
BAGHDAD: Raging violence claimed at least nine victims around Iraq on Friday as Muslims from the bitterly divided Sunni and Shia communities gathered in their respective mosques to pray for peace.
Five civilians were killed by unidentified gunmen in separate attacks in and around Baquba, security forces told AFP. Two workers in a bakery were killed by gunmen in the centre of the northern town of Tikrit. Three others were wounded, police said.
A roadside bomb attack had killed an Iraqi army officer and wounded four of his soldiers Thursday in the Khan Bani Saad district outside Baquba.
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