Commander: Suspects taken in before Iraqi vote - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Commander: Suspects taken in before Iraqi vote

BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested suspected suicide bombers and others during targeted sweeps in the hours leading up to last weekend’s relatively violence-free provincial elections, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond said operations were conducted in Baghdad during the 72 hours before the elections. Only one violent incident in Iraq’s capital city — a shooting at a checkpoint — was reported on the day of the balloting.

“We were focused on emerging threats. ... We had intelligence to suggest attacks were planned,” Hammond told reporters. He spoke days ahead of when he is to hand over command of about 27,000 U.S. forces in Baghdad province to Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger of the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.

Hammond is commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which is also based at Fort Hood. He would not say how many people were detained or under what conditions, other than that they were threats to the elections process.

The success of Saturday’s vote has been hailed by President Barack Obama, who said the peaceful outcome was “good news” for U.S. troops — hinting that a substantial number of those troops could return home within a year.

Hammond would not say whether he thought the elections’ success indicated U.S. troops could soon leave Iraq.

However, he said five Forward Operating Bases in Baghdad would close well ahead of a June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq’s cities under a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, which also calls for U.S. troops to completely leave Iraq by 2012.

Violence has dropped by more than 80 percent around Iraq and particularly in Baghdad since its peak more than a year ago. The U.S. military, though, has acknowledged the improved security conditions remain fragile.

Hammond said attacks in Baghdad had dropped from about three a day to about one a day since the elections, where Iraqis chose members of ruling councils that in turn choose provincial governors.

Hammond said much of the credit for the diminishing violence and the success of violence-free vote has to be given to the Iraqi security forces.

“It’s the best performance I have seen out of the Iraqi security forces,” he said. “They did their job, they did what they were supposed to do.”

The general said there was still room for improvement. He said the army still lacks an adequate logistics support system and it has no noncommissioned officer program.

“Does it mean we are done here? No,” he said. “Is it irreversible? I don’t know how to answer that. It’s a day at a time.”