Michael Ware

Journalist

TSR: "This ramshackle throw-together of disperate militias"


Click photo to play
Length: 2:19

WOLF BLITZER: Coming up, in Iraq, who is causing more chaos and carnage? Would it be the insurgents or would it be Al Qaeda?

Michael Ware is standing by in Baghdad.



BLITZER: Bombings, bodies and beheadings -- Iraq exploding with violence right now. Bombs and mortar rounds killing at least 28 people in Baghdad. Police found 15 bullet-riddled bodies across the capital and they're investigating the reported discovery of 20 decapitated bodies near Baghdad.

All this comes amid a stepped-up effort by coalition forces to try to halt the violence.

And joining us now, our correspondent in Baghdad, Michael Ware -- Michael, this new military strategy that's been unfolding over the past few months in Iraq, is it primarily aimed at the old line Iraqi insurgents, the Sunni militia groups, the Saddam loyalists, if you will; or Al Qaeda, the so-called foreign fighters and Iraqis who are part of Al Qaeda, that threat there?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, to be honest, Wolf, it's all of them wrapped up into one hideous bundle. I mean the point of the surge is not to target one particular enemy of the many that America has in this country. It's essentially to bring stability.

Now, if that means killing Al Qaeda or if that means marginalizing the Shia militias, which own this government, then the surge is meant to blunt all of these factors. Basically, the surge is hoping to just stop as many people dying on the streets of Baghdad as it possibly can. Yet already this month, we see 540 tortured or bullet-riddled bodies showing up in Iraq in the mornings and being collected by the government officials.

We still see the spectacular suicide bombings punching through here into the capital and also into other parts of the country.

So there's no one single focus. It's only hope is to bring some modicum of stability, to give this ramshackle throw-together of disparate militias that the administration insists on calling the Iraqi government, a moment to breathe.

BLITZER: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad.

Thank you.