3 Day Sweep Secures Baghdad Neighborhood.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The nightlife is zero and most shops are shut, but U.S. and Iraqi forces said Wednesday that a three-day security sweep has cleaned up -- at least for now -- a mostly Sunni neighborhood in west Baghdad, notorious for kidnappings, murders and bombings.
"Since we began the operation, not one person from (this neighborhood) has died, not one act of violence has occurred. We have demonstrated that it can be done," Col. Robert Scurlock Jr., commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, told reporters.
"The purpose is to eliminate terrorists and deaths squads," he said.
Caldwell: Securing Baghdad no short-term operation
"Abating the extremists in the capital will neither be easy nor rapid," Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said of progress in Operation Together Forward, a joint Coalition-Iraqi operation to quell sectarian and insurgent violence in the capital. "Challenges will ensue, but efforts will march forward block by block."
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