Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad and set up checkpoints along all roads leading into the city to reduce some of the violence plaguing the capital, the Interior Ministry said Friday.To help halt that bloodshed, more U.S. troops have been shifted to Baghdad from the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, a senior U.S. commander said.
I very much doubt this plan was part of the original scope of Operation Together Forward. I’m not sure exactly how this is going to work but I can see the security value. Various criminal elements, revolutionaries and rabble rousers might be able to walk across the trench with small arms, but they will have a hard time getting a VBIED or other large munitions across.
Baghdad is the key to everything and bringing security is the key to making Baghdad livable. I’ll follow this new development with great interest.
Update: The U.S. is saying the “moat” around Baghdad is an exaggeration.