Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Baghdad , Jan 20, (VOI)-121 gunmen were killed and 1023 arrested during the military operations conducted north of Baghdad , a U.S. military spokesman said on Sunday.

“The military operations conducted north of Baghdad led to killing 121 gunmen, arresting 1023 others, and uncovering 350 weapon caches”, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith told a news conference.

Smith noted the militants are moving northeast of Baghdad in Diala province, in western areas of Kirkuk province, in the northern city of Mosul and “in small numbers to the south of Baghdad” .

He regarded Mosul in northern Iraq “as the only major urban center in which al-Qaeda remains a force”.

“Mosul will continue to be a center of influence for, a center of gravity for al-Qaida because of its key network of facilitation — both financing and foreign fighters,” Smith said. “The flow to Mosul is critical for al-Qaeda in Iraq .”

The military spokesman credited efforts exerted by Syria and Saudi Arabia to reduce the flow of foreign gunmen crossing their borders to fight in Iraq.

“Syria and Saudi Arabia have taken a number of steps to reduce the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq,” Smith highlighted the new cooperation signs from both countries.

He added “In early 2007, 110 foreigners were coming into Iraq from Syria every month. That is now reduced to 40 to 50”.
Syria has introduced roadblocks and border patrols in a bid to crack down on fighters trying to cross into the war-ravaged country, while Saudi Arabia has tightened requirements for people applying for visas to Syria, Smith conceded.

The United States has in the past accused Arab countries neighbouring Iraq of failing to do enough to stem the flow of foreign fighters sneaking into the country, especially from Syria .

Asked by Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq (VOI) about the influence of Iran over security in Iraq , the American official answered” Iran’s threat took different fronts through training, financing and smuggling weapons to extremists groups breaking Muqtada al-Sadr’s order to freeze Jaish al-Mahdi militias by commanders working in the Iranian al-Quds corps force”.

“The numbers of signature weapons that had come from Iran and had been used against coalition and Iraqi forces are down dramatically except for this short uptick in the explosively formed penetrators EFPs in the early part of January”, he said.
However, the U.S. military official did not refer to Iranian links to al-Qaeda in Iraq
“We have discovered great deal of Iranian made weapons with al-Qaeda”, he said, “but we have no information linking Iran to al-Qaeda weapons supply”.
Attributing it to the running of security operation command, Smith conceded that Iraqi forces casualties were triple those of the U.S. troop.