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Iraqi and US forces launch Baghdad security crackdown AFP BAGHDAD - Iraqi and US forces swept through a notorious Sunni district of Baghdad, searching houses and seizing weapons in a blitz involving around 2,000 US troops and an Iraqi army brigade, a US officer said. The capital was already on edge after gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat following a firefight with his guards, in an attack branded a "terrorist" act by Tehran. Major Robie Parke of 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team said the security sweep targetted the Sunni district of Adhamiyah in northeastern Baghdad and marked the start of a much-vaunted crackdown by US and Iraqi forces on militias and insurgents behind bitter sectarian killings in the capital. "Iraqi and US forces conducted clearing operations in Adhamiyah today, which is the beginning of the new security plan," Parke told AFP. Parke added that close to 2,000 US troops were involved in the operation, along with the 1st Brigade of the 9th Iraqi Army Division. An AFP photographer embedded with the US brigade said soldiers searched dozens of houses in and around Adhamiyah and that "a large number of weapons were also seized." Operation Arrowhead Strike Six, as the crackdown was named, focused on the Shaab and Ur sub-districts. An aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who asked to remain anonymous, denied however the operation was the start of the security crackdown expected eventually to involve up to 85,000 US and Iraqi troops. "The new security plan has not been launched, this is an operation to put pressure on Adhamiyah after we received information that fighters were gathering there," the source said. The Baghdad plan, which is being touted by US President George W. Bush as behind his decision to deploy another 21,500 US combat troops in Iraq, is aimed at clearing bastions held by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in their sectarian conflict which has killed tens of thousands in the past year. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday the administration hoped the plan would succeed but was considering alternatives for the troops if it failed. "We clearly are hoping it will succeed, planning for it to succeed, allocating the resources for it to succeed," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "But I would tell you that I think I would be irresponsible if I weren't thinking about what the alternatives might be if that didn't happen," he added. The chronic violence struck an envoy of neighbouring Iran Sunday, when Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at Tehran's embassy in Baghdad, was abducted. "There was a fight between the gunmen who were in Iraqi army uniforms and the Iranian second secretary's guards in central Karrada," a senior Iraqi official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "After the clashes, the gunmen escaped, taking Sharafi with them." Shiite Iran said the gunmen had links to the Sunni-controlled Iraqi defence ministry and also held the United States responsible. "Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the embassy in Baghdad, was abducted on Sunday by a group linked to the defence ministry, which operates under the supervision of US forces in Iraq," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said. Sharafi was snatched in a "terrorist action" outside the Baghdad branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli and taken to an unknown location, he added. In Baghdad, the US military rejected Tehran's accusations, with spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver telling AFP: "Coalition forces were not involved in this incident." Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari met Tehran's envoy to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi, and assured him everything was being done to secure Sharafi's release, Zebari's office said. The kidnapping was likely to increase tensions between Iran and the United States after US forces raided an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil last month and arrested five employees. The men, who are still in US custody, allegedly supported the insurgency in Iraq. Iraqi violence that left another 28 people dead on Tuesday, and 30 more corpses were found in Baghdad, while the US military reported deaths of two more servicemembers. ---------------------------------------------------
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