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NUMANIYA, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces will start using special equipment to foil car bombs in Baghdad, one of the deadliest weapons insurgents are using to carry out sectarian attacks, a top Iraqi commander said yesterday.
Speaking before a wave of car bombs in mainly Shi'ite districts of Baghdad killed 170 people and wounded more than 200, Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander of a US-backed security crackdown in Baghdad, said:
"The technical apparatus has arrived in Baghdad... They are the means to uncover those explosives ... and will be used shortly in the combat arena." Qanbar did not elaborate on what was the equipment or its specific capabilities.
Yesterday's car bomb attacks were the deadliest in the city since US and Iraqi forces launched a security plan in February aimed at halting the country's slide into all-out civil war.
While the crackdown has reduced murder rates, US commanders say they have had less success in curbing car and suicide bombings, despite discovering several car bomb factories.
Civilian casualties have also increased across Iraq as insurgents turn away from Baghdad.
Qanbar, on a visit to the Training Academy for National Police in Numaniya, 120km south of Baghdad, said the security plan was constantly undergoing changes to adapt to different techniques insurgents use to launch attacks.
Insurgents have targeted markets and bridges in recent attacks.
"If the enemy adopts other measures like bridges and other targets, this proves that terrorism has no morality ... it proves that the (terrorists) are bankrupt and that the plan is succeeding," Qanbar added.
- REUTERS
