THE battle for Baghdad has begun. Thousands of Iraqi and US soldiers are combing neighbourhoods that were caught in the throes of sectarian warfare only one month ago.

The offensive, in which about 12,000 additional US and Iraqi troops poured into the city, has concentrated on calming western Baghdad, where Shia and Sunni death squads vie for power.

Generals are hailing a 46 per cent fall in the Baghdad murder rate last month as proof that more muscular tactics are bringing order back to the most dangerous areas. Local people caught in the vice of Sunni extremists and Shia fighters say that the spiralling bloodshed has diminished but that the mayhem will return as soon as the Americans leave.

However, the plan has failed to stop militants from carrying out major attacks in the capital. At least 90 people died in two city bombings last week.

Operation Together Forward was first announced in mid-June. The offensive, which consisted of 50,000 Iraqi forces and 7,200 US soldiers, failed to bring any safety to the city.

The plan relied on the Iraqi Army and police patrolling districts but, in places such as western Baghdad, Iraqi forces often turned a blind eye to abundant Sunni and Shia militants.

With bodies piling high, shops shuttered and mortar bombs flying early last month the spectre of civil war loomed. On August 7, the US military announced that it was bringing the 3,500-man Stryker Brigade to western Baghdad for the second phase of Operation Together Forward. The armoured Strykers roared down streets and US and Iraqi soldiers started clearing the danger zones of Ghazaliya, Amariyah and Dura house by house. Violence dropped and the tide started to turn.

Major-General Bill Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Iraq, lauded the plan’s success at bringing down the murders, kidnappings and death squad activities. “In each of those areas where we’re operating, we are in fact being very successful in doing that,” he told reporters. He said that the operation had been extended to Adhamiyah, the Sunni enclave. Iraqi defence officials have announced plans in the next two weeks to bring the mission to Sadr City, the stronghold of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric.

Residents in Ghazaliya, one of the neighbourhoods that have been swept, are far from upbeat. Yusuf, who had watched al-Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda fighters battle for Ghazaliya, said that he was glad that the US and Iraqi forces had brought some security, but doubted that it would last.

Despite the crackdown, Sunni fighters still launch mortar bombs nightly at the adjoining Shia neighbourhood of Shaola and people still get killed. Even so, Yusuf conceded that conditions had improved.

“There are a lot more checkpoints by the Iraqi Army. Before, some of them had a deal, where they were paid off by the Mahdi Army and the [Sunni] insurgents. Some of them even worked for groups. Most of them were just scared.”

Before the Stryker Brigade came, most shops in Ghazaliya had closed down. Al-Qaeda fighters would spray-paint their organisation’s name on shops and the next day the owner would flee. Yusuf was about to close his own grocery store when the Sunni Mujahidin [Islamic fighters] begged him to keep it open.

“The Mujahidin told me, ‘If you go, we will die. We have nowhere else to shop. If we go to Shaola, we’ll get killed’.” Assured he was protected, he stayed in business. After the Stryker Brigade arrived, the fighters didn’t scatter and continued to shop there.

Yusuf warned: “If the Americans or Iraqi Army leave my area, I’m sure 20 or 30 people a day will be killed. Right now the Mujahidin are looking to see which people and families are talking and helping the Americans.”

Meanwhile, in districts where US and Iraqi forces have not turned out en masse, the sectarian war rages.

In the western neighbourhood of Jihad, where at least 40 Sunnis were shot dead by suspected al-Mahdi army militants in July, Shia families have moved in. Shia death squads have been patrolling the streets and in some cases have threatened Sunni families to leave.

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