Press Briefing, Aug. 22, 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq
Tuesday, 22 August 2006
BRIEFING BY MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN FOR MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ TOPIC: UPDATE ON SECURITY OPERATIONS LOCATION: THE COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 10:03 A.M. EDT DATE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2006
GEN. CALDWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to begin with a few comments about the events in Baghdad this past weekend surrounding the Shi'a festival of Musa, which culminated with a pilgrimage to the tomb of the seventh imam, Musa bin Jafar al-Kadhim.
Slide, please.
Slide 1 As you can see in the photo here, this is the Musa al-Kadhim Shrine in the Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad. The shrine is one of the oldest Shi'a sites in Baghdad.
This year the government of Iraq authorities had predicted as much as 1 million people would attend. So in preparation they developed, coordinated and executed a robust security strategy in order to provide a safe guided passage for the pilgrims while providing resources aimed at anticipating and defending against potential terrorist or criminal activities during the ceremony. This was a tremendous demonstration of the increased capabilities of the Iraqi security forces and the leadership of the government of Iraq.
The anti-Iraqi elements' desire was to achieve a spectacular attack during this holy commemoration to make the government of Iraq seem incapable of protecting its people. However, the Ministry of Interior, under the leadership of Mr. Bolani, in coordination with the Ministry of Defense, exercised overall control of the event, coordinating a public awareness campaign and preparing well in advance.
The Ministry of Interior also conducted close liaison with clearly organized pilgrim groups.
Iraqi army, under the leadership of Abu Kadhir Mohammed (sp), developed a detailed plan for security. And most importantly, the local police and national police provided a safe atmosphere, so that the pilgrims could exercise their religious freedom.
The government of Iraq has shown its commitment to providing the conditions by which religious freedom can be practiced without fear of persecution or attack.
The government of Iraq is moving forward. Its systems are improving. But the loss of life is tragic, and we regret the deaths of those innocent Iraqis who were killed in the cold blood by the small-arms fire on Sunday. These, like so many other terrorist attacks, are aimed at innocent civilians.
According to the Ministry of Defense, Iraqi security forces quickly responded to these attacks, controlling the situation, killing six of the terrorists and detaining 19 others.
Religious ceremonial events of all sects will be respected, but the critical task of providing security in Iraq continues, not only to rid the country of terrorists and insurgents, but to tackle the problem of violent extremists. Iraqi and coalition forces continue to pursue individuals intent on using violence to impose their narrow political and ideological views on others. Operations by Iraqi and coalition forces this past week resulted in the capture of well over 100 known and suspected al Qaeda terrorists and terrorist associates during many raids.
Let me just recap a few of these that occurred just over this past week.
In Ramadi, coalition forces captured a Saudi al Qaeda member who was actively conducting terrorist activities. During the early morning raid, one terrorist was captured and 14 others detained. The raid uncovered a suicide vest, multiple small arms and armament, along with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.
Two more wanted terrorists were detained in another Ramadi operation. One was associated with harboring and transporting senior foreign al Qaeda leaders into Iraq, and the other was known to harbor terrorists responsible for attacks on Iraqi citizens and coalition forces.
In the Baghdad area, recent raids led to the capturing of a suspected IED cell leader, who was also suspected of a shooting death of one Iraqi interpreter and one coalition force soldier, as well as two others, wanted al Qaeda terrorists, believed to have had direct association with several recent vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices here in the city of Baghdad.
Operations in Arabjabu (ph) led to the capture of two wanted terrorists associated with a senior al Qaeda and Iraq leader and part of the cell specializing in bomb making and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Again, all associated with attacks here in the city of Baghdad.
Near Tikrit, two terrorists and three suspects were captured, one who reportedly controlled the 40 other terrorists in the area. Credible intelligence also indicated that his terrorist cell is involved in the movement of foreign fighters into Gogee (ph) area. Reliable intelligence also indicates that the other terrorists captured in Tikrit is directly linked to the February 22nd bombing of the al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra and was involved with other violent attacks here within the country of Iraq.
All of these captures have severely disrupted and disorganized the capability of al Qaeda in Iraq, and they enable Iraqi security forces, along with coalition forces in support, to gain a greater understanding of the terrorists that work in this region and how to best defeat it.
Of course, capturing terrorists is only the first step. The Iraqi judicial system is critical, and it has been prosecuting these terrorists through the Central Criminal Court of Iraq or the CCCI, which is the only court in Iraq with national jurisdiction to try these accused of terrorism. That court, between August 4th and August 10th, convicted 27 insurgents, two of which included sentences of life imprisonment.
These convictions were for various crimes, including possession of illegal weapons such as heavy machine guns, artillery and mortar munitions, rockets, mines and other heavily destructive ordnance. They were convicted for joining armed groups. They were convicted for illegal border crossings.
Convicted insurgents and terrorists then enter the Iraqi Correctional Services to serve their sentences. To date, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq has held 1,365 trials of insurgents suspected of anti-Iraq and anti-coalition activities threatening the security of this country. These proceedings have resulted in 1,171 individual convictions with sentences ranging up to death.
Slide and chart, please.
Slide 2 At the same time we are targeting terrorists this past week, Iraqi security forces in the lead, with coalition forces only in support, have aggressively continued to target illegal armed groups and death squads. If I can draw your attention to the map here, obviously, this is Baghdad area. This is the area we're only going to focus on and talk about where in fact 22 different separate operations just in the last week conducted specifically against death squads by coalition forces and by Iraqi security forces. And over here, you can see the predominant areas where these raids were conducted -- down in the south, southwest corner of the city and up in the northwest corner of the city. These will coincide momentarily when I show you where we've been conducting Operation Together Forward with the locations where those have occurred.
Not all operations conducted, like the one right here, number one, did not produce anything significant out of that operation. So although 22 operations were conducted based on reliable intelligence, not all of this produced exact results. Altogether though, during those raids, they resulted in the detention of six death squad cell leaders and 31 cell members; 37 people taken off the streets here in Iraq, specifically Baghdad, that are threatening the very security that we're trying to reestablish with the plan that the prime minister and his government has formulated.
If I could, let me turn now to an update on Baghdad security operations. Next slide and chart, please.
As you know, Iraqi security forces, with coalition in support, are focusing on key neighborhoods where violence has been the worst. Last week, we spoke about the progress in the area of Dura. Again, the area of Dura is down here in the south part of the city. We continue to see very low numbers of attacks in Dura. More importantly, clean-up efforts continue, and progress is very encouraging. Every day there are additional shops opening. The Dura market has increased traffic. The feedback from our soldiers and the Iraqi security forces operating in that area is that this is a very promising location with tremendous hope for the future.
Slide 3 In Amiriyah, we've seen only a handful of attacks and no murders since that area was cleared on August 16th. And again, to orient you on the chart, Amiriyah, this area right over here is Amiriyah, and then, Ghazalia, up in this area right here in the beladiyas of Mansour and Kadhimiya.
In the Al Nurah (ph) and Ghazalia area, we've had no reports of attacks in those cleared areas.
So the security part of this phase of Operation Together Forward is positive. We are cautiously optimistic and encouraged by all the indicators that we are seeing. But more time will provide us an accurate assessment. Within the ongoing operations, the Iraqi security forces with coalition forces in support since the 21st of August have cleared over 28,000 buildings, resulted in several caches having been found, 61 persons have been detained for the communities, and then there's been greatly reimproved security, too. We've also seen a pickup of about 1,570 tons of trash out of Dura, Ghazalia and Amiriyah.
With regards to civil projects, residents are being contracted to clean up neighborhoods once they have been cleared by Iraqi security forces. In Baghdad, since much of the work is day-to-day cleanup, we're measuring the employment of Iraqis in days. So far to date, more than 1,700 man-days of employment have been provided in these areas of operations to Iraqis for projects directly related to cleanup and economic development. Key to this, however, will be the establishment of the Iraqi government -- by the Iraqi government of long-term jobs and opportunities. In al Amir, some five tons of humanitarian assistance, supplies have been delivered to the Neighborhood Advisory Council, the NAC, to help families there that have been displaced by sectarian violence. Sewer lines are being inspected, and their repairs will be contracted out to local Iraqis.
There are also projects under way to develop solar-powered lighting in some areas. Some of the local schools will receive funding for the purchase of recreational equipment. What we're seeing in these areas is life coming back to some normalcy. We see women and children walking freely in Amiriyah, something that was not seen prior to Operation Together Forward.
I'd like to share with you what I saw yesterday when I was in the Mansour beladiya visiting with Iraqi security forces and coalition forces operating there.
During the time in the area, we stopped by a Neighborhood Advisory Council meeting, a NAC meeting that was in progress. And I saw firsthand the coordination being done between the local residents and the leadership and Iraqi security forces and coalition forces in that area. I witnessed them planning the opening of a medical clinic, locally used for a plan to utilize local medical supplies or making efforts to round up doctors, nurses and pharmacists to enlist their support, which would allow the local residents to come to this clinic and receive free medical care, supplies and very necessary medicine. Their requests for coalition supporters to this event were to help fill in the gaps, to have a surgeon present, to be involved, to provide them the support they need to help make this event successful -- the first time they have attempted to do something like this in that area. In fact, as I talked to the members, it was the first time they had even met in their own council building for over a year. I saw Sunni and Shi'a working together towards one common objective, to improve the lives of those who live in their neighborhood.
There is still much to be done, and we, together, with the government of Iraq, have a long way to go. But with Iraqis in the lead making things happen, there's hope for the future and opportunity for progress in the days, weeks and months that lie ahead of us.
With that, I'll be glad to take whatever questions you all may have.
Yes, sir.
Q (Through interpreter.) Hasir Adel (sp) from Radio Sawa.
Yesterday President Bush expressed his concern over the civil war -- sectarian war in Iraq. What are the opportunities in fact that the civil war could erupt in Iraq?
The second question: Do you limit -- do you outline the areas that the -- which were the source of fire against the Shi'a pilgrims during Sunday? What are these areas? Do you outline these areas? And do you raid these areas?
GEN. CALDWELL: I'll take your second question first. The question was, do we in fact know the areas in which the fire -- the sniper fire occurred on the pilgrims, and what actions were -- are being taken?
I can tell you that the Iraqi security forces did respond and, as I stated in the initial statement here, did in fact kill and capture about 20 individuals that were associated with that sniper fire. So they in fact did both kill and capture those that were believed to have been responsible for that act of sniper fire which did kill some Iraqis.
I also know that the prime minister's office yesterday evening directed the formation of a committee that he wants to have to take a close look at exactly what did occur. It has a twofold purpose. One was to establish the facts as to exactly how many innocent Iraqis were in fact killed and injured during that sniper fighting or anything else that may have occurred during the pilgrimage. And then, secondly, as we call it in the military, they wanted to conduct an after-action report.
When you look at where the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq came from last year at this same time, there's been an incredible leap forward. This year they literally planned, organized and executed the entire security associated with this pilgrimage. There was absolutely no coalition forces involved whatsoever, except what the minister of Defense called on the third tier, providing intelligence and some aerial overwatch platforms. But otherwise it was an entirely run and executed Iraqi security force operation -- an incredible feat that they were able to accomplish.
When you stop to think about it, they were able to preclude any vehicle improvised explosive devices from going off. During that pilgrimage you have anywhere from hundreds of thousands to a million pilgrims over a three-day period moving through the city of Baghdad. They were able to preclude any suicide vest from being exploded during that time period -- I mean, an amazing feat that they were able to make happen themselves.
They did all the public announcements. They thought through ahead of time how to inform their people, what routes they would travel on, how to put protection out on those routes.
They then went so far as to establish vehicle bans and restriction of movement of traffic, to provide greater enhanced security to the citizens of Baghdad, so that they could exercise religious freedom in the security of their own country.
And then the last thing was if you had watched any of the aerial pictures or seen some of the shots that were done by some of the Arabic media stations, there are Iraqi citizens out there providing food and water to the pilgrims as they were walking along the different routes that have been established. I mean, it was an amazing thing to watch, how far they have gone in one year in terms of being able to provide that for their people.
In terms of your first question, what I would say is the president of the United States, in his remarks yesterday, was very clear that we are committed and we're here to see this mission through here in Iraq. There in fact has been a downturn in the level of violence within Baghdad over the last three weeks. The prime minister and his government has formulated a plan that is in fact proven at this point to have been very effective. And time will tell -- months will tell how effective it really is, but the initial indicators are very positive, and we're very optimistic as to what we're seeing occur over the last 10 days, two weeks, and look for more of that here in the next weeks and months ahead.
Okay. Yes, sir.
Q Hello, General. Patrick McDonald with the Los Angeles Times. These death squads that you are disrupting, are they primarily Shi'a, Sunni? I mean, are they sectarian? I mean, whom are they reporting to?
GEN. CALDWELL: Patrick, we're not always sure exactly who they are reporting to. We are able to pick up, through intelligence means, different groups that are clearly out there -- on both sides, both Shi'a and Sunni, extremist elements -- that have gone out and have been conducting sectarian violence with death squads operating and deliberately killing members of the other sect. And so when we're able to identify and target one of those cells, that's what we've been going in after. And as you can see, the volume of operations that are conducted -- up to three or four operations literally every single night within just the city of Baghdad going after these death squad elements, and it's starting to have an impact.
Q So it sounds like it's a mix -- Shi'a, Sunni.
GEN. CALDWELL: It is. It has not been all just one or the other. There in fact has been a little of both. Q Just as a follow-up. I noticed -- is Sadr City on your target list for neighborhoods that you may or may not be going to, since that's said to be a -- or Thawra? It's said to be a hotspot.
Slide 3 (Repeat)GEN. CALDWELL: Could you put that chart back up, please, and also the -- what the prime minister and his government outlined is that -- they went through and identified areas within Baghdad (that) have had the highest level of incidents.
Down here in Dura, we were experiencing 20 to 30 attacks a day, and they've now gone to literally zero attacks, almost, a day since that occurred. That was the reason for going into Dura. And then when you look at these two areas here in with -- you know, in Ghazalia and Amiriyah, they themselves were also two more of the highest levels of violence within all of Baghdad. And again, we've brought those back down -- I say "we" -- the government of Iraq, the Iraqi security forces with us in support of them, back down to minimal levels of just one or two incidents a day.
So once these three -- and the way they've talked about it is we go in, we secure an area -- I mean, we clear an area first. That's with the military force. That's the Iraqi security forces going in. They conduct the house clearings, the building clearings with coalition forces acting in support of them. Once the area has been cleared, we then protect it, and that protection phase is what they're sort of progressing into in those three areas right now. The key will be when the Iraqi police are able to stand up and assume security and protect the people in that area. That's the time period which they can then remove the military force from that location.
Simulatenously, with that going on will be the build phase, as they call it. And in the build phase, that's where the economic programs and the governance have got to take hold. That's why it was so encouraging yesterday going out and seeing the Neighborhood Advisory Council for the first time meeting in their Neighborhood Advisory Council area up there in the area of Ghazalia. They had not done that previously in over a year. So the idea is to get the governments back up and working and get the economic programs going also. And there's a fairly aggressive plan that the government of Iraq has. They're working in coordination with obviously the U.S. mission here in Iraq and the coalition forces to initially get some jobs going up and going to get people back employed and then looking towards more longer-term programs that will actually move in and operate in these areas.
I mean, down in Dura, just in itself, two banks opened that hadn't been opened, according to the residents down there, in the last two years, and they're now open down in the town of Dura -- I mean, the city of Dura.
So I mean, there are positive things occurring, and people are seeing it. But again, this is a long-term project. I mean, this is months in the making; this is not something that's going to happen overnight. But all the signs are very positive at this point.
Q And Sadr City? I mean, it's not a violent spot, supposedly, but it's allegedly a place where there's a lot of death squads operating out of.
GEN. CALDWELL: The operations that you're seeing here will eventually spread throughout the entire city of Baghdad. They're just starting here, and the intent was to take the most volatile areas that have seen the highest levels of deaths and casualties and go there first, and then, we'll continue -- we and the government of Iraq, with us working in support of them, will continue to expand out throughout the entire city.
But again, this is -- this will be months in the making. It's not something that's going to occur in the -- just in the next few weeks.
Yes, sir.
Q (Name inaudible) -- from The Washington Post. Some Americans and some Iraqis as well look at some of the violence, like the killings of the pilgrims and the daily sectarian violence, and see it as an indication that civil war has already broken out.
How do you respond to that assessment? And why do you agree or disagree with that?
GEN. CALDWELL: Well, what I would tell you is that, if you look -- all the government functions are still functioning here within the city of Baghdad. The provincial council is still meeting; they're still holding their sessions; they're still -- the mayor's still there. The district advisory councils are still up and functioning and conducting their sessions and talking about what they want to do to improve their areas, their districts and down to their neighborhoods, and you've got the neighborhood advisory councils functioning.
Yesterday, in the NAC that I was in, I mean, there was not only just Sunnis in there, but there was also Shi'a representation in there too. So when I hear that thing, what I will tell you is that there are extremist elements that would love to do nothing more than incite violence between the two religious sects. I mean, that's their intent. They have political motivation, power motivation, and so those extremist elements are out there trying to incite violence between them. But it's not something that we see widespread across the city.
In fact, what we see is in the neighborhoods we've gone into and have started operating, the level of violence has gone back down to nothing, and you see the citizens wanting to be involved. I mean, that's the most promising thing; that's the most encouraging thing. As I was -- been out over the last two or three weeks talking to are the commanders out there in the field, that's the thing that's most encouraging -- is that the citizens are willing to be engaged and want to take back control of their lives.
Q But do you think that the country is moving towards a civil war?
GEN. CALDWELL: There's no indications that I see at this point. There is concern about the levels of violence, yes, absolutely, and we do worry about the extremist elements, and they have to be brought into check. If not brought into check, then you're going to be left with whatever, you know, can occur from there.
But we, in fact, are taking very deliberate actions. We have these death squad elements that we've identified. We executed 27 operations just within Baghdad last week against these elements, and we'll continue doing that. Those are very deliberate, focused operations. That's not to say there weren't other incidental operations that occurred, but those are very specific ones with an entire intelligence cell that's been stood up. And there's a great effort being made to find, to identify and to target and take out those elements.
Yes, sir.
Q Alistair MacDonald from Reuters. We've talked a lot about statistics today. There were some statistics that came out last week showing a very high level of -- the highest, I think -- level of attacks in the month of July across the country as a whole. How do these figures in Baghdad affect that? Have you seen any trend between August and July nationwide in terms of the number of attacks?
GEN. CALDWELL: What we have seen in August is a downturn. Would you pull up my beladiya assessment chart, please? Someone put that up for me.
If I just take the -- these are the beladiyas within the city of Baghdad. This is during the period before the Samarra bombing; totals was about 13.8 average attacks that occurred. In the June-July timeframe, we'd gone up to 25. Thus far, in August, we're back down to even data lower than we saw before the Samarra bombing -- or right after the Samarra bombing, I mean. So the trends are very positive. But again, I -- I'm always -- we are always very cautious not to take just two weeks of data and make a long-term assessment on it. It's going to take many weeks of assessing this, looking at it, continuing to work at it, to feel like we in fact have turned the tide and are -- but the initial indications are very positive.
And you can see it from the data there. I mean, it's back down to 21 already, and that's with one or two of the spectacular events that did occur.
And you can see in some areas -- I mean, if you take -- that's Thawra -- Sadr City, very, very low; Dura, which did experience about 1.7. It's already been cut in half. And that was -- this was before -- that's before the Samarra bombing occurred. So there are some positive trends. Everybody is very cautiously optimistic about what can occur with this effort.
But what's key is, it's not just a military action this time. You're coming in with the civic piece, with the economic development and with the governance piece. And that's getting the -- all the local and district and provincial elements of governance back up and running, so that they can truly take charge back of their situation and their lives.
Q Do you have any sense of the nationwide trend as far as --
GEN. CALDWELL: We do. And outside of Baghdad -- and I've got -- obviously, specific -- (inaudible) -- but out of 18 provinces that we have, the majority of the incidents that occur, 80 percent of them, 70 -- 80 percent occur just within four beladiya -- four provinces. Then we have 10 provinces that have less than one incident a day. If you take the 14 provinces that are not associated with the greatest level of violence, that's about 60 percent of your population. So about 60 percent of your population and 14 of your provinces are living relatively secure. But the other 40 percent of the population, focused in the four provinces right around the Baghdad area, the Baghdad province, Al Anbar, Diyala and Salahuddin -- obviously we have the challenge there. And that's where the focus from the government of Iraq is being made.
Yes, sir?
Q Excuse me. Sanar Murad (sp), An-Nashkai (sp). Regarding Dura City, I heard about what you have done to Dura City until I went three days ago and stayed with some of my friends there just to check out what's going on. As a matter of fact, I heard a lot of good things, and tragic stories.
And at the same time, I spent about two days in one of the houses there and talked to the people there. They told me that the American forces or the coalition forces made a lot of good things and everybody is happy there. And some kids told me that the American soldiers were talking to the kids, joke -- making jokes with them, and giving them something. And even one of the kids told me that some soldiers gave them sacks and told them that -- to fill these sacks and they would return to them at 2:00, at afternoon, and each one will take $5. And that story was true, because at 2:00 the kids came there and the American soldiers started to give them $5 for each sack.
The second day, I mean, the same kids went to the same place, waiting for the American soldiers, but they didn't come, because they went to another city.
Now every kid say, "Oh, I wish that the American comes again," come again, to give them the garbage and to receive the money and so and so.
And a lot of people told me that the American troops or, let's say, the soldiers made good things for the streets, but until there are a lot of digs and holes in the streets, to the degree that -- I rode a bike, I borrow a bike and went through the city -- lot of digs and holes in the streets.
And one of the men told me that "I don't believe that the American troops cannot do something miracle for us, for the electricity." For example, five or seven hours cut off and just one hour. Everybody is hoping that you are able to do something miracles, and me too, of course, waiting for this miracle. Are you going to pave the streets or to do something good for the electricity? This is the most important things. Thank you, sir.
GEN. CALDWELL: Thank you.
If there's a miracle that's going to occur in Iraq, it's going to be the Iraqis that will produce that miracle. And you'll find the coalition forces and the U.S. mission here are here to help support them to achieve their goals and their aspirations. That's what we're here to do.
There are clearly a lot of projects that are being planned right now. The -- I went down to the NAC in Dura about a week and a half ago, had a chance to talk to the NAC chairman and engage with him some about what are the thoughts and ideas that they're planning within the neighborhood there. He's got some great ideas.
I know there is a funding stream that is being made available to each of these areas, so that they can in fact take on projects that the NAC and the DAC have talked about, discussed and come to conclusion that they want to see happen.
So there's a real big economic piece to this, associated with it, that part of the government of Iraq has a major portion of, and the coalition forces and the U.S. mission are supporting them with that.
So the things that the people were talking to you about, they'll be able to express to their leadership, to the governance piece there, up through the DAC, which will provide to the provincial government's council. And in fact, they -- I know they've got listed already -- they've been making and prioritizing -- some have already got funds committed against them right now, today, and should by another two or three weeks, once all the final contracts have let -- start to be seen done, specifically in these three neighborhoods that have already been cleared and now being protected.
Yes, sir.
STAFF: Two more questions.
Q Thank you, sir. (Name inaudible) -- from AFP news agency. The three neighborhoods you were talking about, sir, are supposed to be Sunni neighborhoods, right?
GEN. CALDWELL: Yes.
Q Dura and Amiriyah and Ghazalia. So can we say that there is more cooperation right now between the Sunnis and the Americans, considering that the Sunnis were supposed to be opposing the presence of the American troops in Iraq?
GEN. CALDWELL: (To staff ) -- could you put that chart back up? I guess what I want to point out to you that -- and perhaps I wasn't real clear -- the green means that it's an area that's been complete. The yellow means it's an area that we've started operating in also and are moving forward in. And when you look here in the Kadhimiya and Mansour beladiyas, this area down here is predominantly Shi'a. I mean, I was in there yesterday talking to some of the store owners and moving through the street there. So although this may have been predominately Sunni right in here, it was -- we went specifically there first because that's where the highest number of violent deaths were occurring. They were -- the three places they started first were targeted because that's where the highest number of incidents are occurring.
But they are in fact now, coalition forces and Iraqi security forces are operating in this area and will eventually clear that whole area so that it moves from being cleared to protected, just like they will also the entire Mansour district and all the rest of the way down here in the Dura beladiya too.
So in fact, there are many Sunni and Shi'a areas that are going to be both cleared and protected and start building the phase in.
Q Okay. I have a second question, if you don't mind. Concerning the attacks that happened against the pilgrims of Imam Musa Kadhim the other day, some of the Iraqi newspapers were talking about the insurgents using gun silencers. Is that right? And if it is true, is it new for the insurgents to use such silencers in Iraq? And can you tell us anything about the nationality of the insurgents you have detained so far -- those who attacked the pilgrims?
Thank you.
GEN. CALDWELL: What I would tell you is that the prime minister has a committee or I should say, the government -- the (prime minister ?) office is going to establish a committee that's going to look specifically at those various things you're asking. I would have to go back to the Ministry of Defense and Interior to ask them what they found because it was truly an Iraqi security force operation. They're the ones who engaged and killed some of those terrorists and captured the others. They have all those people and equipment in their possession. There was absolutely no coalition force involvement whatsoever in any of those counterreactions that was done to bring back peace in that area.
So that's really something I'd have to address back to the Iraqi security forces. I just -- I don't know that answer because we were not involved whatsoever in it.
STAFF: Last question.
GEN. CALDWELL: Yes, sir.
Q (Name inaudible) -- again from The Post. Can you talk a little bit about -- tell us a little bit about what's going on in Kurdistan with reports of shelling from both Iran and the Turkish borders, what you know of what's going on up there?
GEN. CALDWELL: We've in fact asked the verification of that exact thing. I know the reporting that you're talking about; I've seen it. There has been some shelling. I'm not sure we clearly established exactly where the shelling did come from or what caused it. So I'd be hesitant to say exactly who was responsible for it. But I know we're looking at that, trying to get that cleared -- the definition of this, exactly what took place. And I know there's also ongoing dialogue up there right now with the Turks too, with the government of Iraq in dealing with that situation along the Turkish border. Q So you're looking at reports on those borders --
GEN. CALDWELL: Yeah.
Q -- (Iran ?).
GEN. CALDWELL: But again, the government of Iraq really has the lead in working through that because it's a sovereign nation, that's their border, and they're dealing with the government -- the Turkish government with respect to that.
I'd really have to refer your question back to them.
Okay. Thank you very much.
END.
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