US and Iraqi forces launched an offensive against al Qaeda and "Iranian-supported" Shia militants across Iraq on Monday in anticipation of an expected surge in violence.
US commanders fear militants will step up attacks on US soldiers or launch a "spectacular" attack on civilians to try to influence the debate over the war in Washington, where a keenly awaited progress report on the new US military strategy in Iraq is due to be presented to Congress in September. In Baghdad, leaders of Iraq's divided Kurdish, Shia and Sunni Arab communities held a series of bilateral talks ahead of an expected summit this week.
The summit is aimed at healing the deep mistrust that has paralysed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity government and plunged it into its worst crisis. "Everything will be on the table. It is like the days when we were forming the government, except that Maliki himself is not going to be replaced," said a Shia official familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Those taking part in Monday's preparatory bilateral talks were Maliki, Deputy President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni and member of the Accordance Front; President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Deputy President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a member of the powerful Shi'ite Supreme Islamic Iraq Council; and Masoud Barzani, the leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region.
The US military described Operation Phantom Strike as "a powerful crackdown" jointly carried out by Iraqi troops. "It consists of simultaneous operations throughout Iraq focused in pursuing AQI (al Qaeda in Iraq) terrorists and Iranian-supported extremist elements," it said in a statement.
The US military says Iran has stepped up its support for Shia militias, giving them more weapons and training, to hasten the departure of US troops. Iran denies giving any aid. The statement gave no details of the operation or how many of the 162,000 US troops now in Iraq were involved.
US forces have launched a series of offensives in recent weeks, particularly in beltways around Baghdad that have become safe havens for al Qaeda car bomb networks and Shia militias.
Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, the day-to-day commander of US forces in Iraq, told Reuters in an interview at the weekend his forces were adapting their tactics to counter an expected surge in militant attacks over the next month. The top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due to present a report to Congress in September on the success of the troop build-up and Iraqi political progress towards reconciliation.
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