Baaquba, 17 August 2007 (Voices of Iraq)

The Diala rescue council announced on Friday the completion of all preparations to open 12 offices inside the province’s five districts: Baaquba, Khales, Muqdadiyah, Balad Roz, Khaneqeen.

“The new branches will coordinate between tribes and government departments, mainly security departments (police and army),” member of the council Awaad Nejm told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

“The council, which consists of 70 tribal chiefs and 600 political and academic figures, tries to finalize the national reconciliation project in eight villages in Baaquba district,” he also said.

“The villages are: Abu Saida al-Saghera, al-Sheje, al-Makhesa, Abu Karma, al-Jalbi, al-Kaba, Zaghniya al-Kabiera, Zaghniya al-Saghiera. These villages witnessed in the past days wide-scale security operations to hunt down gunmen,” the official noted.

More than 10,000 Iraqi and U.S. forces have been engaged in the largest security operation in Diala province (Operation Arrowhead Ripper) since mid-June to drive out armed groups in the province.

Diala, inhabited by a mix of Arabs, Turkomans and Kurds, is one of the strongholds of armed groups, particularly the al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq.

Baaquba, the capital city of Diala, is located 57 km northeast of Baghdad. Iraq Updates

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