Iraqi leading Baghdad crackdown forced from home

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Someone has tried to paint over the black graffiti on the wall, but the Arabic script is faintly visible. It reads: "You have to leave immediately."

The one-meter high cream wall, shaded by lush orange trees, fronts a modest two-storey house that was until around December the home of Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar, the man chosen to oversee a new Baghdad offensive against militants.

Qanbar, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is himself a victim of the very sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing that the U.S.-backed campaign aims to quell. The plan is seen as a last chance to stop all-out civil war.

Qanbar, in his 60s, bald and of medium height, took the warning seriously and left the upmarket neighborhood of the mainly Sunni district of Yarmouk that had been his home for more than 20 years, his neighbors told Reuters.

The house is now empty, tended to by neighbors. If the neighbors, many of them former high-ranking officers of Saddam Hussein's army, know where Qanbar is, they are not saying.

"We were so sad to read these evil paintings," said a retired Sunni officer who lives in the same street. "We, as his neighbors, were all so insulted that we covered the writing with white paint. We don't want to read it every day."

Baghdad's population has been religiously mixed for most of its history, but sectarian gunmen are carrying out a form of ethnic cleansing, forcing many to flee their homes to seek sanctuary in areas where their sect is in the majority.

Qanbar's neighborhood is home to a closely knit community of mostly Sunni and some Shi'ite former officers, their old military camaraderie largely overriding sectarian tensions. Recently leaflets were distributed telling Shi'ite residents to get out of the area.

RIGHT CHOICE

Two doors down from Qanbar's house lived a brigadier, also a Shi'ite. He, too, was forced out at the same time. neighbors say the threats coincided with the decision in December by both men to rejoin the new Iraqi army being built by the Americans.

Nothing officially has been released about Qanbar's background and it was unclear what role he took when he rejoined the Iraqi army. The Iraqi Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for information about Qanbar.

The Iraqi government has yet to announce he will command the Baghdad operation, although U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell said last week he would.

Qanbar's neighbors offered a snapshot of the man tasked with proving that Iraq's new security forces, which have been plagued in the past by desertions, poor discipline and sectarianism, are now capable of leading the fight in Baghdad.

Qanbar, who hails from the same tribe as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in southern Iraq, will be in overall command of nine Iraqi brigades in Baghdad. Although U.S. troops will work alongside his forces, they will not report to him.

"He is a brave man and has long experience in the military. Selecting Qanbar is the right step toward stabilising Baghdad," said a retired brigadier.