Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen up to 80 per cent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital can soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said today.
Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar said the success of a year-long clampdown named "Operation Imposing Law" had reined in the violence between majority Shias and minority Sunni Arabs, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.
"In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions, gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad were awaiting Operation Imposing Law," Lt Gen Qanbar told reporters.
He pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on the capital's streets as an indicator of its success. In the six weeks to the end of 2006, 43 bodies were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian fighting threatened to turn into full scale civil war.
That figure fell to just four a day in 2008, in the period up to February 12th, said lt Gen Qanbar, who headed up the plan launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki."Various enemy activities" had also fallen by between 75 and 80 per cent since the security plan was implemented, he said.
Central to the success of the plan has been the erection of 3.5-metre-high concrete walls that snake across vast swathes of the city.
The walls were designed to stop car bombings blamed on al-Qaeda that turned markets and open areas into killing fields. While they have provided security, some have cut off entire communities, turning them into big jails, according to locals.
Lt Gen Qanbar said the walls could be taken down "in the coming months" and predicted the improved situation in Baghdad would translate to greater security elsewhere. "Continued security in Baghdad will directly increase security in the provinces, particularly those around Baghdad. If the heart is healthy, the body is too," he said.
The United States says attacks have fallen across Iraq by 60 per cent since June on the back of security clampdowns, 30,000 extra US troops and a ceasefire ordered by Shia cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Key to the fall in violence was also a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turn against al0-Qaeda in late 2006 and form neighbourhood security units, which man checkpoints and provide tips on militant hideouts.