BAGHDAD — More than a month after the beginning of a highly publicized security crackdown and the killing of militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, the number of daily attacks in Baghdad has actually increased.
Iraqi and U.S. forces began stepping up patrols, creating new checkpoints and conducting more searches June 14. But the initiative, Operation Together Forward, has not reduced the number of attacks in the capital, according to statistics released by U.S. military forces Thursday.
In the 101 days before the crackdown, an average of 23.8 attacks occurred daily. In the first 35 days of the operation, the average was 25.2 attacks a day.
The failure of the crackdown to decrease the violence is yet another sign of the sectarian conflict that has buffeted this city. Continuing violence across Iraq prompted Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the nation's highest-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric, to issue a rare public statement Thursday that urged Iraqis to stop attacks against civilians.
"I repeat my call today to all Iraqis of different sects and ethnicities to realize the extent of the danger threatening their country's future and confront it side by side," Sistani wrote.
In the statement, Sistani called on those setting off car bombs and carrying out executions to stop, and to instead start talking with the government.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and U.S. military leaders have said their priority is securing Baghdad, increasing residents' sense of safety by eliminating sectarian militias, death squads and insurgent fighters.
Officials tried to put the best face on the statistics. Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, chief spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, said at a news conference Thursday that an upswing in sectarian violence in the last few days had driven the averages higher. In the first month of the operation, he said, the number of daily attacks was about the same as during the previous 101 days, at 23.7 a day.
"While the last five days or so should not be an indicator of the Baghdad security plan overall, neither can they be brushed aside," Caldwell said. "And again, we will do whatever it takes to bring down the level of violence here in Baghdad."
The June death of Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, had led some to hope that the power of foreign militants here would diminish. Although the effectiveness of Zarqawi's organization after his death has yet to be tested, it is clear that much of the violence in Baghdad is unrelated to foreign militants. Most of the recent killing in the capital involves Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents trading attacks with Shiite death squads.
