Major General Kevin J. Bergner (Usa) Hold a Defense Department News Briefing

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Major General Kevin J. Bergner (Usa) Hold a Defense Department News Briefing

GENERAL BERGNER HOLDS A DEFENSE DEPARTMENT NEWS BRIEFING, BAGHDAD

MAY 7, 2008

SPEAKERS: MAJOR GENERAL KEVIN J. BERGNER (USA), STRATEGIC EFFECTS DIRECTOR, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ

TAHSEEN AL-SHEIKHLY, CIVILIAN SPOKESMAN, OPERATION FARDH AL-QANOON [*] AL-SHEIKHLY (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We'd like to thank you today for coming to this press conference. And it's an honor to talk with my friend, General Bergner, the official spokesman for the Multi- National Forces in Iraq.

Actually, talking about what's going on in Baghdad, in particular, needs a continuous information and update, because what's going on affects everyone. And the Iraqi government is determined to set the facts in front of everyone and in a transparent way, as well.

Baghdad suffered during the past years from terrorism, which tried in many aspects to divide it. And through the implementation of Operation Fardh al-Qanoon, we managed to liberate several places in Baghdad that used to be hot zones and the terrorists wanted to control those places.

And there were no reconstruction in those places and basic services. At the same time, there were also places in Baghdad enjoyed -- or used to enjoy security services.

And there were also plans, developments to build their infrastructure and developing their infrastructure in the appropriate way, that what's going on now, unfortunately, that the hot zones at a certain point and after being cleared, and now they're clear, and they have now taking the shares from the development and reconstruction, while on the other hand we see that there are some places in Baghdad, like Shaola and Sadr City, that used to be secure and used to have most of the basic services. Now it suffers from the control of the criminal gangs that control the cities of those people and make them suffer.

The Iraqi government for the past month exerted a lot of effort to provide all the ...

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