Top Iraqi security official wants war of intelligence

Baghdad: Iraq's top security official called on Sunday for a shift from major military operations to a "war of intelligence" to track down remaining extremist cells responsible for attacks such as those that killed 60 people in the past week in the Baghdad area.

Interior Minister Jawad Al Bolani also warned that his ministry has been forced to put on hold some of its plans to recruit more police due to cuts in the government's 2009 budget prompted by plummeting oil prices.

Al Bolani's call came after suicide bombers struck twice - once last Sunday near the Baghdad police academy and again on Tuesday in an attack targeting Sunni and Shiite shaikhs touring an outdoor market after a reconciliation meeting. A total of about 60 people were killed in the two attacks.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Al Bolani said it appears that Al Qaida in Iraq is unleashing sleeper cells in a bid to reassert itself after being routed in recent US-Iraqi military operations. He said the key to defeating the insurgents lies in better intelligence, not more wide-scale fighting.

"I do believe that launching major military operations against Al Qaida is no longer needed and that there is a need to activate the intelligence side," Al Bolani said in an interview at his office in a former Saddam Hussain palace on the edge of Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone.

"There are some Al Qaida sleeper cells who are refreshing their activities to prove that they are still able to conduct attacks," Al Bolani said. "The only challenges we are facing [from them] are the suicide bombers and car bombs."