US helps Iraq prevent terrorism

Much to the chagrin of the resistance-minded people of the world, America is helping Iraq to defeat the "resistance" that has murdered mostly Iraqi civilians, including women and children. I cheer the Iraqi Army and the American advisors who helped them. A big CHEERS to Iraq and America for preventing the terrorists, who have long entered Iraq via Syria, from mass murdering Iraqis today.

When Baghdadis awoke Tuesday to find their streets sealed off and the Iraqi capital under virtual lockdown, the rumors began to fly. Army officers had staged a coup in the Green Zone, one version said. No, members of the Baath party loyal to the former regime had taken over, according to another.

At midday, officials appeared on television to try to calm the city. "The security forces can't stage a coup. Our security forces are professional," military spokesman Mohammed Askari told a news conference. "The era of coups is gone."

Rather, he said, the government had ordered the lockdown to foil a major plot involving car bombings and suicide attacks against civilian and government targets.

In a later statement, security forces said they had detained 25 people and confiscated 440 pounds of TNT, 440 pounds of C4 explosives, more than 65 gallons of ammonium nitrate and 60 mortar rounds.

There may well have been such a plot: Parliamentarians were told by the authorities that the Iraqis had received a tipoff from the U.S. military that around six booby-trapped cars had arrived in Baghdad from the Syrian border area, and were to be used to target sites such as government ministries, Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said.