One hundred insurgents detained in Baghdad during past week

BAGHDAD, IRAQ: Iraqi and Coalition forces in and around Baghdad captured more than 100 insurgents and defused 147 improved explosive devices during the past week as part of continued security operations, according to Iraqi and Coalition spokesmen. One insurgent was killed, six kidnap victims liberated and about 700 kilograms of TNT discovered during security sweeps in the past seven days, said Iraqi Army spokesman Major General Qassim Atta during a press conference in Baghdad today.

The current security plan, called Fardh al-Qanoon, or `Enforcing the Law,' has been in place since early 2007, when U.S. planners began implementing a U.S. troop surge and divided Baghdad into separate security districts. Iraq forces now lead operations in all three of Iraq's major cities, Baghdad, Basrah and Mosul and are operating in Amarah, where the Iraqi Army is currently battle elements of the Mahdi Army, said U.S. Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll at the same press conference.

“So far in Amarah, there has been little resistance to the extension of the rule of law,” Driscoll said. “There are still foreign terrorists who want to reconstitute their forces. Elements of Al-Qaeda'' and Iranian-supported “Special Groups are still in Baghdad, but they are under pressure.''

Iraqi forces kicked off a security operation last week in the southern province of Maysan, arresting the mayor of Amarah, Rafeaa Jabar, who also acted as Maysan's deputy governor. Amarah, the provincial capital of Maysan, serves as the one of the major distribution points for weapons entering into southern Iraq from Iran and was the most significant Mahdi-controlled area in Iraq after control of Basrah and Sadr City were taken by Iraqi national forces.

As Iraqi government control over Baghdad solidifies, ministries are attempting to return families displaced from their homes during the past five years of conflict. In July, a national list of homes occupied illegally by people will be published by the government, allowing more than 100,000 displaced families from around the country to move back into homes they previously occupied.

`”The success of Fardh al-Qanoon is connected with the return of displaced families in Iraq,'” said General Atta. “Forces will raid the homes and remove occupants” if they do not leave voluntarily. About 20,000 families have returned to their former homes and about $140 million has been allocated as compensation, Atta said.

An increase in public events such as wedding receptions at hotels and the opening of national embassies is anecdotal evidence of improving security in Baghdad, Atta said. In May, the Sadrist movement and the Iraqi government signed a cease-fire that allowed the military to enter the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City uncontested.