Iraq to deploy 40,000 troops around Baghdad

The Iraqi government will deploy 40,000 troops around Baghdad in an attempt to stop the daily insurgent attacks on the capital which have claimed dozens of lives in the last month.

The operation, the biggest since the handover of power by the Americans last June, comes during a lethal upsurge in bombings and shootings that followed a lull in the violence during the national elections.

The Iraqi force will be backed by 10,000 US troops and the operation is due to be extended to other cities across the country once the results from the pilot scheme had been analysed, said the Iraqi Ministry of Defence.

The government also said yesterday they believed reports that the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had indeed been injured.

At the same time conflicting statements appeared on the website used by Zarqawi's group - al Qaeda in Iraq - about a successor.

One version was that a commander called Abu Hafs al-Qami will take over as temporary leader. But a second statement, signed in the name of Abu Mayzarah al-Iraqi, the 'media coordinator', denied this had happened.

It added that the group had announced Zarqawi's wounding to show its news credibility and allay fears following reports that the leader had been killed.

"You will hear what will make you happy, faithful brothers, and the allies of Satan will hear what will spite them."

Defence Minister Saadun Al-Dulaimi said that although Zarqawi may be out of action because of his injuries, the offensive against the insurgents must be continued. Mr Dulaimi said the deployment around Baghdad will have an "offensive posture" with 600 checkpoints to screen traffic.

"There will be no place for terror or anyone who harbours terrorists", he said.

Mr Dulaimi said troops would be drawn from interior and defence ministry forces and would begin operating in the capital, with the city divided into sections, a unit responsible for each.

"We will also impose a stringent blockade around Baghdad, like a bracelet around an arm, God willing, and God be with us in our crackdown on the terrorists' infrastructure. No one will be able to penetrate this blockade," Dulaimi said.

"You will witness unprecedented, strict security measures."

But even as Mr Dulaimi spoke attacks continued nationwide, with at least 15 people killed in bomb blasts and shootings. A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near an Iraqi police patrol in Shola, a poor district of the capital, killing three people and wounding six, police said.

In central Baghdad, Thamer Ghaidan, a director general at the industry ministry, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting. In the south of the capital, gunmen shot dead Professor Moussa Salum, a deputy dean at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, along with three bodyguards.

Today a US helicopter crashed in Iraq after being shot at and the fate of its crew remains unknown, the US military said in a statement.

It said two helicopters received small arms fire near Baquba 60km north of Baghdad on Thursday night.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS