Baghdad: Iraq's government hopes it will soon be able to declare an end to a US-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad following a sharp drop in insurgent attacks in the capital, a military spokesman said yesterday.
Brigadier-General Qasim Mousawi, Iraqi spokesman for the nine-month-old Baghdad security offensive, said the decline in violence would also allow the government to reopen 10 roads this month that had been closed for security reasons.
"We are in the final stage of Operation Imposing Law ... Soon the prime minister will declare the final victory against terrorist groups and Al Qaida," Mousawi said.
"This will mark the end of Operation Imposing Law." Mousawi did not suggest that would mean an end to joint military offensives in Baghdad.
Private guards kill cabbie
Mousawi told Iraqi state television that reopening 10 out of some 80 closed roads would help reduce traffic jams in Baghdad and "citizens will feel life returning to normal".
Iraqi and US forces launched Operation Imposing Law in February in a final attempt to halt Iraq's slide into civil war.
Even as violence ebbs in Baghdad, an Iraqi taxi driver was shot dead by a private security guard hired to protect US convoys driving through Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The incident took place Saturday afternoon, when a taxi driver got close to the convoy in western Baghdad's Atafiyah neighborhood, according to a police officer at the nearest station.
The US Embassy in Baghdad corroborated that account, but said it could not confirm whether anyone was killed or wounded.
Embassy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said the company involved was DynCorp International, one of three firms contracted to protect American officials in Iraq.
