A US-led raid and airstrike, targeting networks allegedly smuggling weapons and fighters from Iran, killed 32 suspected militants on Wednesday in Baghdad’s Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, the military said.
Word of the raid came after Iraqi police in Sadr City had said that a bombardment by US helicopters and armoured vehicles had killed nine civilians, including two women, and wounded six others. The police also said 12 people were detained.
The US military said 12 suspects were detained during Wednesday’s raids.
“The individuals detained and the terrorists killed during the raid are believed to be members of a cell of a Special Groups terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq into Iran for terrorist training,” the military said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities clamped a three-day driving ban on the capital and erected new checkpoints, while thousands of Shiite pilgrims began their annual trek toward a mosque in northern Baghdad to mark the anniversary of the death of one of Shiite Islam's key saints.
First-aid tents, stocked with bottled water or offering food, dates, yogurt and tea, lined the streets as authorities scrambled to prevent a catastrophe from marring the ceremonies honouring Imam Moussa ibn Jaafar al-Kadhim, one of 12 principal Shiite saints who died in the year 799.
More than a million Shiite faithful — flogging themselves with iron chains and slicing their foreheads with swords — are expected to proceed on Thursday toward the shrine of Imam al-Kadhim in Baghdad’s Shiite Kazimiyah neighbourhood. The self-flagellation slowly turns their white cloaks red with blood in a ritual of grief banned under Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, arrived in Iran on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on bilateral relations and improving the security situation in Iraq. It was the Iraqi premier’s second visit to Tehran in less than one year.“We are here today to boost commercial and security relations with neighbouring countries,” al-Maliki said. He said he would focus on overcoming “terrorism challenges” in the region.
Some 400 plainclothes Iraqi agents, part of a mostly Shiite organisation called the Public Order Committees, would take up positions at checkpoints, Miska said.
