[Michele Norris:] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Baghdad today. And on her arrival, she got a first hand reminder of the violence there. Her military transport plane was delayed for more than half an hour because of indirect fire from mortars or rockets at Baghdad Airport. Rice went to Baghdad to repeat what senior American military officials have been expressing for weeks, that Iraq's leaders don't have time for endless debate and that the security situation is not being helped by their inaction. Attacks against U.S. forces have claimed the lives of at lest 24 American servicemen since Saturday, 13 of them in Baghdad, an all time high since the start of the war. NPR's Anne Garrels joins me now from the Iraqi capital. Anne, what led to all of this?
[Anne Garrels:] Well, there are almost double the regular number of troops in Baghdad now because of stepped operations. American troops are out of the barracks. They're on the streets in some of the worst neighborhoods of Baghdad. They're searching houses, following up on tips on al-Qaida in Iraq. And they're trying to stem reprisal killings between Shiite and Sunnis. So obviously, the more troops you expose, the higher the likelihood of casualties. And the recent call by the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq encouraging Iraq's Sunnis to eliminate the infidels during the holy month of Ramadan, you know, may be another reason. The military spokesman in Baghdad acknowledged this has been a second particularly bad week, with U.S. authorities documenting a near record number of bomb attacks, including both car bombs and roadside explosives.
[Michele Norris:] The Sunni tribes are reported to be united against al-Qaida. Is there any evidence to support this?
[Anne Garrels:] Yes. Some tribal leaders from Iraq's troubled Anbar Province have now pledged to clean out al-Qaida. They don't like their brand of fundamentalism, they're foreign driven, they're angry about attacks on local Iraqis and some tribal figures. So they have gone after some al-Qaida targets and they provided intelligence to the U.S. and Iraqi forces there. But but, but that doesn't mean an end to the insurgency. Al-Qaida's just one group. There's still support for what Sunnis call the real resistance attacks on Americans. The Sunni tribal leaders are still demanding the U.S. leave Iraq, they don't like the Shiite led government and they basically want to start from zero.
[Michele Norris:] And what about the Shiite side, the continued activity of death squads, the mounting Sunni death toll?
[Anne Garrels:] U.S. senior officials, as you indicated, have repeatedly expressed their frustration with the inability of the Shiite led government to tackle the militias, many of which are related to the Shiite political parties. But like the Sunni armed groups, these are increasingly fragmented, with some beyond easy control. Yet, having said that, the politicians aren't doing much. However, once again, finally under U.S. pressure, the Iraqi interior ministry yesterday suspended an entire Iraqi police brigade on suspicion some members may have permitted or even participated in death squad killings. That's the furthest Iraqi officials have ever come toward tackling the problems of militias thought to be operating within the ranks of its own largely Shiite forces. The final blow came this week when a large scale kidnapping was carried out, largely unhindered by the brigade in its area of operation.
[Michele Norris:] Who was targeted?
[Anne Garrels:] It was like many incidents here. It was a factory, in this case a meat packing factory. Twenty-six workers were picked up at gunpoint, forced into trucks, taken away. So far, 10 bodies have been recovered, all of them Sunnis. So it may have had an economic component, but in the end it certainly had a sectarian component.
[Michele Norris:] Anne, before we let you go, I want to ask you about the reconciliation plan announced by Prime Minister Maliki earlier this week. Has he given any more details?
[Anne Garrels:] No, none, and you know, this isn't really so far much of anything, local committees to arbitrate problems. But they've got no control over security, and U.S. officials are saying it's really going to have to take firm leadership from the top to do anything.
[Michele Norris:] Thank you, Anne.
[Anne Garrels:] Thank you.
[Michele Norris:] That was NPR's Anne Garrels speaking to us from Baghdad.