| Global update |
Police shortage heightens danger in Iraq
Bombs have been found throughout Baghdad during
the scramble to increase protection for future election
BYIIM KRANE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi capi
tal is still far short of the numbers of
Iraqi policemen needed to secure it,
and the force won’t be up to strength
in time for national elections in Jan
uary, the U.S. general in charge of
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security in Baghdad said Tliesday.
The blunt assessment of police de
ficiencies contradicts upbeat assess
ments that the Iraqi force would be
able to protect Iraqi voters by the
scheduled election, or even earlier.
Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, com
mander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Di
vision, said Baghdad needs 25,000
police. Of those, 7,000 would patrol
Sadr City, the Shiite slum home to
more than a third of the capital’s 6
million residents, he said.
Right now, the city counts 15,000
police — most of whom have had
just eight weeks of training.
“We’re about 10,000 short of what
we need,” Chiarelli said in a lunch
briefing with reporters. He said Bagh
dad’s required contingent of 25,000
police should be on the streets by
spring or summer 2005.
Meanwhile, a thousand home
made bombs have been hidden in the
streets and alleys of Sadr City, and
Chiarelli said neighborhood leaders
have promised to disarm them as
part of an ongoing weapons amnesty.
The rebel bombs remain hidden in
the east Baghdad neighborhood’s
walls and buried under its streets.
Such roadside bombs have proven
the most lethal weapon used by Iraqi
guerrillas against U.S. troops.
“We’re not digging them up. That’s
their responsibility,” Brig. Gen. Jeffery
Hammond, a 1st Cavalry deputy com
mander, said of the Shiite militia that
still controls portions of Sadr City.
The revelation came during re
cent discussions between com
manders in the 1st Cavalry Division,
responsible for security in Baghdad,
and leaders of Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Al-Sadr’s
one-time rebel group has handed in
multiple truckloads of heavy
weapons in an unprecedented
disarmament that has been under
way for more than a week.
Hammond said militia leaders told
the Army they also plan to remove
the buried bombs.
The disarming of the Mahdi Army,
if it takes hold, leaves the U.S. mili
tary freer to concentrate on a widely
expected assault on guerrilla-held
Fallujah. Iraqi and U.S. officials have
long suggested an assault on the city
west of Baghdad will begin after the
U.S. presidential election Nov. 2.
The Mahdi Army fought gritty ur
ban battles with U.S. troops in April
and August that saw more than a
thousand killed.
In Sadr City, law enforcement
melted away in the face of Mahdi
militia assaults. Only 500 police re
main in the neighborhood, which has
been largely under control of the
Shiite rebels for months.
CARE International director
latest in string of abductions
Margaret Hassan has worked for 30 years in Iracj
supplying medicines and other humanitarian aid
BY ROBERT H. REID
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen
seized the head of CARE Internation
al's operations in Iraq — a woman
who has worked on behalf of Iraqis
for three decades — as the British
government on Tliesday weighed a
politically volatile American request
to transfer soldiers to dangerous ar
eas near the capital.
Early Wednesday, CARE Australia,
which coordinates the international
agency's Iraq operations, announced
it had suspended operations because
of the abduction, but it said staff
would not be evacuated.
Margaret Hassan, who holds
British, Irish and Iraqi citizenships
and is married to an Iraqi, is among
the most widely known humanitari
an officials in the Middle East. She is
also the most high-profile figure to
fall victim to a wave of kidnappings
sweeping Iraq in recent months.
The Arab television station Al
Jazeera broadcast a brief video show
ing Hassan, wearing a white blouse
and appearing tense, sitting in a room
with bare white walls. An editor at the
station, based in Qatar, said the tape
contained no audio. It did not identify
what group was holding her and con
tained no demand for her release.
Hassan, who is in her early 60s,
was kidnapped about 7:30 a.m. while
being driven from her home to
CARE's office in a western neighbor
hood of the capitol, a CARE employ
ee said. The employee said the group
did not employ armed guards.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera,
Hassan's husband, Tahseen Ali Has
san, said his wife was abducied near
the CARE office.
“Two cars intercepted her from the
front and back,” he said. “They at
tacked the car and pulled out the driv
er and a companion. Then they took
the car to an unknown destination.”
He said his wife had not received
threats and that the kidnappers had
not contacted anyone with any de
mands. “Nothing like this happened
before, because CARE is a humanitari
an organization, and she has served
the Iraqi people for 30 years,” he said.
Hassan has lived in Baghdad for 30
years, helping supply medicines and
other humanitarian aid and speaking
out about Iraqis' suffering under inter
national sanctions during the 1990s.
She went to work for CARE Interna
tional soon after it began operations in
Iraq in 1991 following the Gulf War,
with programs focusing on rebuilding
and maintaining water and sanitation
systems, hospitals and clinics.
The kidnapping was the latest at
tack against humanitarian organiza
tions, many of which have curtailed
operations and withdrawn interna
tional staff because of the violence in
Iraq. It also follows a wave of abduc
tions targeting foreigners in the heart
of the capital.
“Our staff are not operating current
ly there, they're certainly not working
there now in light of the current situa
tion,” Robert Glasser, CARE Aus
tralia's chief executive officer, told
Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Although militants have kid
napped at least seven other women
over the past six months, all were lat
er released. By contrast, at least 30
male hostages have been killed, in
cluding three Americans beheaded
by their captors. Hassan's abduction
occurred less than two weeks after a
video posted on an Islamic Web site
showed the beheading of British
hostage Kenneth Bigley.
CARE said Hassan was born in
Britain, but the British and Irish for
eign offices said she was born in Ire
land, which is not part of the U.S.-led
coalition in Iraq. When the kidnap
pers sent the tape to Al-Jazeera, they
said they had abducted a “British aid
worker,” according to the station.
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