Iraqi police to set up security belt around Baghdad

[Barrett808]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The chief of Iraq (news - web sites)'s nascent police force says his men are primed for an ambitious plan to throw an impenetrable ring of security around violence-hit Baghdad to clamp down on terrorism and organised crime.

But Lieutenant General Ahmed Kazem Ibrahim said without adequate telecommunication equipment and more reinforcements, he would be powerless to secure a grip on Baghdad and other major cities as US troops begin to withdraw.

"The interior ministry has made studies and designed plans to set up a security belt around Baghdad and other big cities in the near future," said Ibrahim.

Police and troops from the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defence Force (ICDC) will be deployed at all entry points to Baghdad and the main cities "to check organised crime and terrorism," he said.

Iraq's security forces are made up of 67,000 policemen, 9,000 border guards, about 19,000 ICDC members, 40,000 members of the Force for the Protection of the Sites (FPS) in addition to 1,800 soldiers in the new army.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040210/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_police_security&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[leftchick]

1. uuummmm.....

Shouldn't they get the electricity running 24/7 first? Then do the Sharon version of containment?

[tridim]

2. How much more "freedom"

can the Iraqis take? Gawd, what a mess.