Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 8:26 AM(CDT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- President Bush arrived Tuesday in Baghdad on an unannounced visit to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
It marks Bush's first visit since al-Maliki took office recently.
The trip comes as at least 70,000 forces -- most of them Iraqi -- prepare to deploy Wednesday on the streets of Baghdad in an effort to bring security to the Iraqi capital, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
The crackdown will include Iraqi police, police commandos, soldiers and emergency police as well as U.S.-led coalition forces, the ministry said.
They will enforce checkpoints on Baghdad's roads as well as a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. There also will be a ban on carrying weapons.
Coalition forces will offer air support if needed.
The forces will wear new uniforms to distinguish them from insurgents who often wear fake outfits to carry out attacks.
Raids will be stepped up against suspected insurgent hideouts. Officials said they expect clashes, especially in Sunni-dominated neighborhoods.
Officials said it's the largest operation since the U.S. turnover to Iraqis in June 2004.
Al-Maliki has vowed to deploy Iraqi forces to end the spike in sectarian strife in Baghdad in recent months.
In violence Tuesday, one Iraqi police officer was killed and five others wounded when two roadside bombs hit their patrol near a bridge in southeastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
Also, Iraqi police found six bodies shot dead and showing signs of torture in neighborhoods of the capital, the official said.
And gunmen killed Hani Aref Jassim, a professor at Baghdad University's College of Engineering, in western Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood.
Also Tuesday, at least five car bombs exploded during a two-hour period in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 14 people and wounding 20 others, a police and morgue officials said.
The attacks targeted two high-ranking police officials, including the police chief, an Iraqi police patrol and an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Police casualties included two among the dead and six wounded.
Kirkuk is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Successor to al-Zarqawi
Meanwhile, al Qaeda in Iraq has named a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader killed in a U.S. airstrike last week north of Baghdad, Islamist Web sites said Monday.
The sites identified the militant group's new leader as Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, which means "the immigrant," indicating that he -- like the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi -- is not Iraqi.
CNN has not been able to confirm the claim's authenticity.
President Bush said the new leader will be targeted.
"I think the successor to [al-]Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," said Bush, who began a two-day strategy session on Iraq on Monday at Maryland's Camp David. (Full story)
Al-Zarqawi died of blast injuries less than an hour after the U.S. strike Wednesday on a house near Baquba, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the capital, the U.S. military said Monday. (Full story)
He was positively identified through DNA testing, the military said.
Other developments
The judge in Saddam Hussein's trial barred the ousted Iraqi leader's half brother, Barzan Hassan al-Tikriti, from the courtroom Tuesday, following disruptions the previous day. Hassan, former head of Iraqi intelligence, was evicted from the courtroom Monday after arguing with Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman and calling the jurist and the court "terrifying." (Full story)
Coalition forces killed a suspected terrorist and detained 23 others in raids Monday north of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday. "The forces were targeting reported terrorist activity in the area, to include the reported use of an elementary school for an improvised explosive device and suicide bomber training facility," a military statement said.
More Americans expressed optimism about the war in Iraq after the killing of al-Zarqawi, suggests a CNN poll released Monday, but a majority surveyed still believes the U.S. invasion was a mistake. (Full story)
