WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- With violence waning in Baghdad under the new security plan, nearby Baqubah has seen an increase in attacks, U.S. and Iraqi commanders said Friday.
It's a common phenomenon in Iraq. When there is a security crackdown in one area, opportunistic fighters will move to a less well protected place to stage attacks there.
The U.S. military has responded with the deployment of a Stryker battalion to Baqubah this week to combat the violence. Baqubah, a scrappy town of mixed ethnicities and sects 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, has been a relative success story with a long-sitting governor and a functioning city council.
"What we are seeing right now is an increase in attacks against the coalition forces and the Iraqi security forces," said Col David Sutherland, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to Baghdad reporters.
Sutherland said there has been a measureable decrease in sectarian violence, expressed primarily in the murder rate. In July 2006, 124 people were murdered in the Baqubah region. In February, the number dropped to 16. While winter is historically less violent, that is a considerable drop.
But attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces have increased, suggesting new insurgent elements have come to town. In July 2006 there were 28 indirect fire attacks inside Diyala province. In February there were 98, according to Sutherland. Direct attacks nearly doubled, from 90 in July to 153 in February.
"What we see are an increased number of attacks and more brazen attacks that also replicate those attacks that are normally seen in Baghdad," Sutherland said.
Sutherland said al-Qaida in Iraq, the mostly Iraqi terrorist group believed responsible for the February 2006 bombing in Samarra that triggered the last year's sectarian violence, has attempted the same thing in Baqubah.
"You may have seen the attack on the village outside of Muqdadiyah (a Baquba suburb) last week, where it was reported that 30 homes were burnt. That was actually an attack by al Qaeda on a village. It was not a sectarian attack on the village," he said.
