After the surge, US controls just 40 per cent of Baghdad

Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 per cent of the city five months into the Bush administration's surge to pacify the capital, a top US general said yesterday as troops began an offensive against two al-Qa'ida strongholds on the city's southern outskirts.

With the surge of tens of thousands of additional US troops into Iraq complete, Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno said American troops had launched the offensive in Baghdad's Arab Jabour and Salman Pac neighbourhoods at the weekend. It was the first time in three years that US soldiers had entered those areas, where al-Qa'ida militants build car bombs and launch Katyusha rockets at American bases and Shia Muslim neighbourhoods.

US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus said at a news conference with visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that the operation would put troops into key al-Qa'ida-held areas around Baghdad.

After the surge, US controls just 40 per cent of Baghdad | Defence | The Australian