Baghdad puts police on high alert, cancels leave

BAGHDAD: Iraq cancelled leave for all its police and put them on high alert on Sunday ahead of the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraqi towns and cities at the end of the month, an official said. Security was tightened across the capital on Sunday, with troops and police closing roads and carefully searching cars. “The alert has gone to all of our forces. There will be no days off. They are at their full strength across the whole country, at 100 percent,” said Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the interior ministry, which controls the police. “All of our units have seen an increase in their numbers, not only at the checkpoints,” he told Reuters. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday that the US withdrawal sent a message to the world that Iraq could handle its own security. The government trusted its forces to defeat Al Qaeda militants and criminal gangs, he added. reuters
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