Iraq unveils Baghdad security moves

The Iraqi government on Tuesday launched a plan to secure a capital descending deeper into chaos, even as violence claimed the lives of more Iraqis, including people waiting in line for food handouts.

Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar, the former naval officer appointed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to oversee the much-vaunted Baghdad security plan, announced a 72-hour closure of some border crossings along the Iranian and Syrian frontiers, restrictions on civil liberties, and the suspension of all weapons licenses except for those issued to authorized security officials and contractors.

“Legal procedures will be taken and strict penalties will be imposed against all those who violate the rules,” Qanbar said, reading from a lengthy statement broadcast over state television.

It was unclear how some of the security provisions differed from measures already in place. Observers questioned why Maliki left the announcement to a surrogate. The prime minister spent much of the day visiting a university in the city of Hillah, about 60 miles south of the capital.

The plan includes a tightening of the few remaining liberties left for Iraqis in the jittery capital, including an earlier nighttime curfew and closer scrutiny of packages, mail and electronic communications. It imposes unspecified restrictions on gatherings in public places, clubs, companies and organizations “in order to protect citizens and those working in these places.”

The plan’s supporters defended the restrictive elements as necessary.

“The government has a right to take any procedure to provide security for the people,” said Qusai Abdul-Wahab, a Shiite Muslim lawmaker loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr. “People are demanding security first and last.”

Under the plan, Qanbar said, his commanders will be authorized to interrogate and arrest all individuals, inspect private property and seize any weapons, presumably without seeking the approval of courts or political leaders. It wasn’t clear whether the new provisions changed the existing rules, which allow each Iraqi family to keep one weapon at home.

The plan calls for restrictions on the movements of vehicles and individuals as well as for surprise sweeps of roadways, Qanbar said. It includes tougher laws for those who commit violence or harbor alleged terrorists and special court sessions to speed up trials.

The plan also addresses the explosive issue of displaced Iraqis, demanding that squatters in the homes of families who fled their neighborhoods out of fear of sectarian violence vacate the properties within 15 days.

The announcement did not detail how the edict would be enforced, but it called for the establishment of “specialized committees” to audit property deeds. Officials also acknowledged that many of the people who fled after horrific acts by their neighbors might not want to come back. “This matter will be dealt with later,” said Hamid Moalla, a Shiite lawmaker.

The plan also bars vehicles with tinted windows or without license plates from traveling the city’s streets. Such vehicles have long been illegal but ubiquitous, often escorting the very political leaders now advocating the security plan.

Some details of the plan raised more questions than they provided answers. For example, few people believe that insurgents and militiamen use the legitimate border crossings closed as of today, because they can ferry weapons and personnel into Iraq at many places along the porous and poorly guarded borders. Maliki supporters acknowledged the logistical challenges but said the effort would be stepped up.

The very act of making such an announcement might have an effect. “One of the methods of this plan is using the psychological war against the terrorist,” lawmaker Abdul-Wahab said.

Shiite militias, including Sadr’s Al Mahdi, have apparently decided to lie low during the coming crackdown, which began at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Sunni Muslim insurgents, on the other hand, have stepped up attacks on Shiite civilian targets.

This month, an insurgent group led by a successor to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the slain leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, vowed to sabotage any effort to secure the capital, which Sunni Arab extremists have declared part of a future Islamic state.

“We will extend our battlefields,” the group said in a Feb. 2 message posted on a website frequently used by insurgent groups. “Burn the ground under the Jews and their allies. Eliminate their forces and destroy their vehicles. Down their airplanes. Burn their flesh with car bombs. Cut their bodies with [roadside bombs] and take out their hearts with snipers. The best way to defend is to attack.”

U.S. and Iraqi officials hope their Baghdad security plan will stem the country’s slide deeper into civil war and lawlessness. The U.S. has begun a move to buttress forces in the city, where it will eventually add 16,000 troops. Iraqis have also moved additional forces into the capital.

Still, more than three dozen Iraqis were killed or found dead in the capital Tuesday. At least 18 were killed and 38 were injured in a suicide bombing in a mostly Shiite neighborhood where people were waiting in line for monthly rations of flour, sugar and cooking oil. A car bomb in east Baghdad killed four boys near a high school. Four civilians were injured in the attack.

Iraqi police found the bodies of at least 20 people shot dead and dumped in west Baghdad.

The offices of a weekly newspaper in the northern city of Kirkuk burned down under mysterious circumstances. At least one employee was killed.

Gunmen in the southern city of Samawa killed an alleged former member of Saddam Hussein’s security forces. Authorities in Hillah found the body of a man tied to a palm tree trunk.

The U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed Sunday in Al Anbar province.

daragahi@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Saif Hameed and special correspondents in Baghdad, Hillah, Kirkuk and Samawa contributed to this report.