Iraq, US move against rebel stronghold (AP) Updated: 2005-09-11 09:32 Baghdad International Airport reopened Saturday after a 24-hour closure,
begun when a British security firm stopped working because it had not been paid
for seven months. After overnight negotiations, the government agreed to pay
half of what it owed, and employees of the London-based Global Strategies Group
were ordered back to work.
With the Tal Afar offensive under way, the Iraqi defense minister signaled
his U.S.-trained forces would not stop after this operation and vowed to move
against insurgent bastions throughout the country.
"We say to our people ... we are coming," said Defense Minister Sadoun
al-Dulaimi.
The latest drive against the stubborn insurgency began with just over a month
to go until Iraqis vote on adopting a permanent constitution
Wrangling during the drafting of the charter, which faces stiff opposition
from the country's Sunni Arab minority, highlighted distrust among Iraq's
volatile ethnic and religious mix as well as worries that Iraq might eventually
split apart.
Sunnis claim the document favors the long-oppressed Shiite majority and the
Kurds, who have run a semiautonomous state in the north since the end of the
first Gulf War. Both Shiites and Kurds appear eager to set up a loose
confederation of mini-states after decades of repression by a centralized
government in Baghdad.
The offensive in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, is especially
delicate because of the tangle of ethnic sensitivities.
About 90 percent of the city's 200,000 people — most fled to the countryside
before the fighting — are Sunni Turkmen who have complained about their
treatment from the Shiite-dominated government and police force put in place
after the U.S. invasion in 2003.
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