(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-20 19:41

Iraqi military commander Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar said that before the troop buildup, one-third of Baghdad's 507 districts were under insurgent control.

"Now, only five to six districts can be called hot areas," he said. "Al-Qaida now is left only with booby-trapped cars and roadside bombs as their only weapons, which cannot be called quality operations, and they do not worry us."

The Iraqi commander also reported the release of 1,686 detainees from Iraqi jails.

Odierno said the US military had separately released at least 50 detainees per day, or a total of at least 250, since beginning an amnesty program for inmates as a goodwill gesture linked to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

After the shooting Sunday in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, Blackwater spokeswoman Anne E. Tyrrell said the employees acted "lawfully and appropriately" in response to an armed attack against a US State Department convoy.

But Iraqi witnesses claim seeing Blackwater security guards fire at civilians randomly.

Speaking from his bed in the Yarmouk hospital four days after the incident, Jabir said he was one of the wounded when Blackwater's security guards opened fire in Nisoor Square.

He said he was stuck in a traffic jam near Nisoor Square in western Baghdad when he saw the American convoy of armored vehicles and black SUVs parked about 20 yards away at an intersection, apparently following an explosion.

      1   2   3     

      1   2   3