"We are fed up with these stalling words," al-Jubouri said. "We want only the security and stabilization."

Mohammed Ali Jassim, a 40-year-old Sunni owner of a spare parts store, was hopeful the security plan will work. Jassim said he was forced to abandon his business in one of Baghdad's commercial areas, Sinak, where more than 50 people were kidnapped by gunmen disguised in military uniforms late last year. Jassim's brother was among the victims.

"I wish I could open my store again and send my children to their schools without fear of being kidnapped or killed," Jassim said.

But a supermarket owner in western Baghdad, Anwar Abdullah, claimed the security push is doomed for failure because most of the militants have fled the city in advance.

"It sounds like this security plan is going to affect us more than it will affect terrorists," he said.

After nightfall - and the daily citywide curfew - US warplanes flew low over Baghdad in an apparent attempt to show the security push is gathering momentum.

In southern Iraq, British and Iraqi security forces closed two border points with Iran at Sheeb and Shalamcha - blocking the gates with large metal shipping containers - and expanded coastal patrols to monitor maritime traffic into southern Iraq, a statement said.

Authorities also set up checkpoints ringing Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the commercial hub of the Shiite-dominated south. The British military said the operation would last for 72 hours.

President Bush said Wednesday the Iranian government is providing armor-piercing bombs to kill American soldiers in Iraq, although he backed away from claims the top echelon of Iran's government was responsible.

Iraq also temporarily closed its borders with Syria on Wednesday. Washington and some allies have claimed Sunni militants have used Syria's porous border with Iraq as vital supply routes.

Meanwhile, another round of conflicting reports deepened the mystery about the whereabouts of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose loyalists include the Mahdi Army militia.

Sami al-Askari, a top adviser to Iraq's prime minister, said al-Sadr traveled to Iran "a few days ago," but he gave no details on how long the cleric would stay. He denied that al-Sadr left Iraq in fear of arrest under the security crackdown. But a lawmaker loyal to al-Sadr, Saleh al-Ukaili, insisted that al-Sadr is in Iraq and claimed the accounts of his departure were part of a "campaign by the US military" to track down the cleric.

A statement from the office of President Jalal Talabani quoted him as saying that he has no information on al-Sadr's location, but he believed "many of the Mahdi Army commanders have been instructed to leave Iraq to facilitate the mission of the security forces."

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked about reports that al-Sadr was in Iran. "I hear that ... but I haven't seen any factual proof at this point," Gates said. "I don't think he went there for a vacation."

1

2