This is from wiredispatch.
Sadr it seems is safe in Iran and not part of the action in Sadr City. It seems clear that some groups had earlier rejected his leadership. Sadr was probably happy enough that the US and Maliki incursions into Sadr City helped eliminate them. Now it looks as if even more leaders on the ground are rejecting his leadership and feel betrayed. It may do little good that he urges unity. In fact he may find himself losing power within his own movement unless he can show that the truce is not being used by the Maliki govt. to dismantle his militia movement.
Sadr City truce strains as militia leaders grumble
Sadr City truce under strain as Shiite militia leaders grumble about mounting pressures
HAMZA HENDAWIAP News
May 28, 2008 15:49 EST
An angry Shiite militia commander complained Wednesday that "we were duped" into accepting a cease-fire in Sadr City — remarks that point to a potentially damaging rift within the movement of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The May 11 truce ended seven weeks of fierce fighting in Baghdad between U.S. and Iraqi forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which held nearly complete control of the Sadr City district.
Iraqi soldiers now have moved into most parts of Sadr City with little resistance. But the objections raised by the commander highlight apparent dissent by some Mahdi Army leaders.
A split among al-Sadr's followers — between those favoring a more militant path and others seeking compromise with Iraq's government — could threaten the relative calm in Baghdad and re-ignite Shiite-on-Shiite violence across Iraq's oil-rich south.
The commander, speaking to tribal sheiks and lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr, said that "we were duped and deceived" by the truce. "They are arresting many of us now."
The group had gathered in al-Sadr's main Baghdad office to discuss how to respond to what they consider cease-fire "violations" by Iraqi troops, such as arrests and house searches.
Some in the audience, however, took issue with the views of the commander, whose name was not made public for security reasons.
"You can be the winner without a military victory," said Falah Hassan Shanshal, a prominent Sadrist and one of two lawmakers who attended the meeting in Sadr City, home to about 2.5 million Shiites.
"We had to bow before the storm because it was uprooting everything and everyone standing in its path," he said.
Shanshal was referring to the punishing attacks by U.S. and Iraqi forces, which used tanks, helicopter gunships and Hellfire missiles fired from unmanned aircraft. The strikes killed and wounded hundreds and left parts of Sadr City in ruins.
The southern section of the district has been sealed off from the rest of Sadr City in an attempt to foil militia movements and rocket and mortar attacks on the U.S.-protected Green Zone. The battles in Sadr City were part of a wider Mahdi Army backlash to a government crackdown on armed groups launched in late March in the southern city of Basra.
Al-Sadr, who has been in Iran for at least a year, supported the Sadr City cease-fire, perhaps to save his Mahdi Army from further losses so it can continue the fight later.
But signs of opposition have been growing within the militia ranks. Last week, two Mahdi Army commanders said militiamen were divided over whether the cease-fire was in their interest.
They said some believed too many lives had been lost to quit the fight and allow their "enemies" to take control of Sadr City, the militia's largest stronghold.
The two commanders, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said some militia leaders had fled to Iran or southern Iraq to avoid arrest.
The U.S military claims Iran trains and arms militant Shiite militiamen loosely linked to the Mahdi Army. Tehran denies the charge.
The head of al-Sadr's office in Sadr City, Sheik Salman al-Freiji, suggested the truce may collapse if "violations" by the Iraqi army continue.
"There will not be any trust built between the two sides like that," al-Freiji warned. "The Mahdi Army was created to defend the Iraqi people. How can you do that without fighting the occupier?"
Shanshal, the Sadrist lawmaker, was more conciliatory. He criticized the Iraqi army for what he called heavy-handed tactics, but stressed that he did not want more fighting in Sadr City.
He suggested the government declare a 10-day grace period during which militia weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs would be handed over to the army.
"After that, they should arrest anyone who is found to possess this kind of weapons," Shanshal said.
Much of the devastation caused by the fighting is around the concrete barriers erected by U.S. troops to push militia gunners out of range of the Green Zone, which was hit by near daily salvos of rockets and mortar shells at the height of the fighting in April.
Entire blocks near the wall are now heaps of debris, twisted metal and rocks. Stores sit empty, their walls blackened and merchandise burned. Some residents on Wednesday were still hunting through the rubble to recover valuables.
Dozens of buildings are pockmarked with bullet holes. Some streets are strewn with the charred hulks of cars. Some stores remain shuttered, but residents are moving freely, negotiating their way on foot or in service taxis around Iraqi army tanks, Humvees and armored personnel carriers patrolling the area's dusty streets or stationed at major intersections.
New billboards compete with old ones bearing images of al-Sadr and his late father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr — the namesake of the district.
Some of the new, government-funded billboards, show images of men wanted for "crimes committed against the Iraqi people" and proclaiming that "criminals use your neighborhoods to launch attacks."
But new graffiti attacks Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite. One message calls him a "traitor" and an "agent of the Americans." Another declares: "Al-Maliki is a coward."
Hymn-like songs praising al-Sadr and his late father, gunned down in 1999 by suspected Saddam Hussein agents, blare out from several stores.
But there are also signs of everyday life returning.
Municipal workers wearing bright yellow jerseys sweep streets and children play soccer on dirt fields. Women shop at outdoor food markets and men watch movies and smoke water pipes in coffee shops offering a respite from the unforgiving heat with ceiling fans powered by generators.
"Everything is going well, but there is tension still," said a woman who only wanted her nickname, Umm Sadiq, to be used. "I still have to walk a long way to work because of the traffic congestion, but at least I do so feeling safe."
Source: AP News
Showing posts with label Al Sadr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Al Sadr. Show all posts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
U.S. Appears to take lead in fighting in Baghdad
This report seems a bit dated. If the U.S. is still attacking this will end the cease fire that Sadr offered. Maliki obviously lost his bid to destroy the Mahdi militia with help from the U.S. It may be that the U.S. will continue some operations anyway. If they do that is really asking for big trouble.
The operation was seen by Maliki and the rival Badr brigades in Basra and elsewhere as a means of weakening or destroying Al Sadr's power before the October election. Instead Maliki's weakness is revealed as well as his utter dependence upon U.S. support.
In my opinion Al Sadr is as much an opportunist as a radical. He will make peace temporarily with the U.S. if that will give him an opportunity to consolidate his power. This is what he was doing during the ceasefire. The media often portrays him as some sort of Iranian puppet. This seems far from the truth. He is basically a nationalist and even co-operates with Sunni when he can. U.S. commentators mistake the fact that Sadr may very well accept Iranian support for his being a tool of the Iranians. He accepts their help because it helps his own cause not that of the Iranians.
U.S. Appears to Take Lead in Fighting in Baghdad
U.S. Forces Battle Mahdi Army in Sadr City, Aircraft Target Basra
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; 9:58 AM
BAGHDAD, March 28 -- U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in the vast Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and military officials said Friday that U.S. aircraft bombed militant positions in the southern city of Basra, as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand.
Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the Sadr City fighting, as U.S. troops took the lead.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of U.S. weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
U.S. forces were involved in about a dozen firefights Thursday in Baghdad alone, with fighting spread across six neighborhoods, according to information released by the U.S. military Friday morning.
U.S. ground patrols in such areas as Kadhamiyah and New Baghdad repeatedly came under attack from small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, responding with their own weapons and in one case calling in helicopter support. In that incident, the helicopter fired a hellfire missile into a group of militants that had attacked U.S. troops manning a checkpoint in Kadhamiyah, killing three of them. When the militants renewed their attack, the helicopter returned and killed 10 more using a 30mm gun, according to a U.S. military release.
In all, U.S. troops killed 42 in Thursday's Baghdad fighting, a sign of their growing engagement in the Iraqi-designed offensive.
Thursday night, American aircraft dropped bombs on two locations in Basra in support of Iraqi ground forces, said Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. He said coalition forces would continue to make airpower available at the request of Iraqi troops.
Coalition reconnaissance jets have been flying over the area for the past three days, but Thursday's action was the first airstrike.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, released details Friday on a fight that erupted Wednesday in Hillah, in which U.S. special forces joined with an Iraqi unit that had come under heavy assault. The Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics unit lost nine men after a large force of militants attacked a road checkpoint. U.S. troops joined the battle, and a U.S. helicopter tracked the militant force as it pulled back and regrouped near a mosque. A hellfire missile strike killed five of them, and the rest of the group dispersed, according to a U.S. military statement.
Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that "we can't quite decipher" what is going on. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.
The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups: the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.
Some officials have concluded that Maliki himself is firing "the first salvo in upcoming elections," the administration official said.
"His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps" against forces loyal to Sadr, the official said. "It's not a pretty picture."
Elements of Sadr's militia have fought fiercely, including rocketing the Green Zone, the huge fortified compound in Baghdad where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and international agencies are located.
Starting about 5:25 p.m., the Post reporter heard the launch of 14 rockets, which Mahdi Army officers in the area said were aimed at the Green Zone. U.S. officials reported that 12 rounds hit the zone in that time frame, including six that fell inside the embassy compound. An American civilian contractor was killed in a residential area of the embassy compound, and another death was reported in the zone's U.N. compound.
Further volleys landed Friday, striking the office of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. A guard was killed. Hashemi was not in his office at the time. U.S. officials in the Green Zone have been advised to stay indoors and wear body armor when they venture out.
Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City, engaging Humvees as well as the Strykers. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.
"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
In August, Sadr ordered his militia to observe a cease-fire, a move widely credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq. In recent days, Sadr officials have said the cease-fire remains in force. But in practice, his fighters and Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging full-scale war in places. Further fighting with his men could slow U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
American commanders said in recent days that their units were taking only a backup role in the offensive and that Iraqi forces were growing strong enough to shoulder the country's security needs.
Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not make an accurate assessment of what the Post reporter saw without knowing the precise location. He underlined that U.S. troops were playing a backup role in the offensive but that on a battlefield that is "360 degrees," it might seem at times that they were out front. If an Iraqi unit was about to be overwhelmed by an enemy, "of course we are going to assist."
On Thursday, thousands of followers of Sadr turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad. Iraqi television channels carried crowd scenes in which people carried a coffin draped in flags and decorated with a portrait of Maliki. They denounced him as a "new dictator" and chanted: "Maliki, keep your hands off. People do not want you."
Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms stormed the Baghdad home of a well-known member of Maliki's government, Tahseen al-Sheikhli, and took him hostage, according to the Information Ministry. Sheikhli is a chief spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, in charge of building public support for government efforts to quell violence in the city.
As fighting continued in Basra, saboteurs blew up one of the city's main oil pipelines. Gunmen opened fire on the city's police chief, wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammad, director of military operations at Iraq's Defense Ministry, said the Basra operation would continue until security forces captured the outlaws or wiped them out. He said the Iraqi military planned to seal and search every neighborhood to capture suspected criminals and confiscate weapons.
But an adviser to Iraqi security forces, who had predicted that the fight in Basra would take 10 days, said it could go on much longer. He also said Iraqi forces were calling on U.S. and British forces for help. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
"I think the government can't win this battle without interference of Americans or British," he said. "I think the aid or assistance is on the way." In his view, the Iraqi military needed air coverage and help with logistics and intelligence.
The fighters "are opening many, many fronts against the army," he said. The adviser said the militia's weapons, some of them made in Iran, are more powerful than those of the Iraqi army.
So far, casualties in Basra on all sides have totaled about 400 killed and 300 wounded, he said.
Holloway, the British military spokesman, said Iraqi security forces were "consolidating their current positions" and preparing for the next stage of the offensive. They were cordoning off areas and trying to gain control of the city "bite-size chunk by bite-size chunk."
Residents in Basra said they observed Mahdi Army militiamen gathering in their neighborhood stronghold of Jumhuriyah, assembling men and weapons while dodging gunfire from Iraqi army snipers at intersections.
Staff writers Karen DeYoung and Howard Schneider in Washington and special correspondents Naseer Nouri, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim and Dalya Hassan in Baghdad contributed to this report.
The operation was seen by Maliki and the rival Badr brigades in Basra and elsewhere as a means of weakening or destroying Al Sadr's power before the October election. Instead Maliki's weakness is revealed as well as his utter dependence upon U.S. support.
In my opinion Al Sadr is as much an opportunist as a radical. He will make peace temporarily with the U.S. if that will give him an opportunity to consolidate his power. This is what he was doing during the ceasefire. The media often portrays him as some sort of Iranian puppet. This seems far from the truth. He is basically a nationalist and even co-operates with Sunni when he can. U.S. commentators mistake the fact that Sadr may very well accept Iranian support for his being a tool of the Iranians. He accepts their help because it helps his own cause not that of the Iranians.
U.S. Appears to Take Lead in Fighting in Baghdad
U.S. Forces Battle Mahdi Army in Sadr City, Aircraft Target Basra
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; 9:58 AM
BAGHDAD, March 28 -- U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in the vast Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and military officials said Friday that U.S. aircraft bombed militant positions in the southern city of Basra, as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand.
Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the Sadr City fighting, as U.S. troops took the lead.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of U.S. weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
U.S. forces were involved in about a dozen firefights Thursday in Baghdad alone, with fighting spread across six neighborhoods, according to information released by the U.S. military Friday morning.
U.S. ground patrols in such areas as Kadhamiyah and New Baghdad repeatedly came under attack from small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, responding with their own weapons and in one case calling in helicopter support. In that incident, the helicopter fired a hellfire missile into a group of militants that had attacked U.S. troops manning a checkpoint in Kadhamiyah, killing three of them. When the militants renewed their attack, the helicopter returned and killed 10 more using a 30mm gun, according to a U.S. military release.
In all, U.S. troops killed 42 in Thursday's Baghdad fighting, a sign of their growing engagement in the Iraqi-designed offensive.
Thursday night, American aircraft dropped bombs on two locations in Basra in support of Iraqi ground forces, said Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. He said coalition forces would continue to make airpower available at the request of Iraqi troops.
Coalition reconnaissance jets have been flying over the area for the past three days, but Thursday's action was the first airstrike.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, released details Friday on a fight that erupted Wednesday in Hillah, in which U.S. special forces joined with an Iraqi unit that had come under heavy assault. The Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics unit lost nine men after a large force of militants attacked a road checkpoint. U.S. troops joined the battle, and a U.S. helicopter tracked the militant force as it pulled back and regrouped near a mosque. A hellfire missile strike killed five of them, and the rest of the group dispersed, according to a U.S. military statement.
Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that "we can't quite decipher" what is going on. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.
The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups: the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.
Some officials have concluded that Maliki himself is firing "the first salvo in upcoming elections," the administration official said.
"His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps" against forces loyal to Sadr, the official said. "It's not a pretty picture."
Elements of Sadr's militia have fought fiercely, including rocketing the Green Zone, the huge fortified compound in Baghdad where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and international agencies are located.
Starting about 5:25 p.m., the Post reporter heard the launch of 14 rockets, which Mahdi Army officers in the area said were aimed at the Green Zone. U.S. officials reported that 12 rounds hit the zone in that time frame, including six that fell inside the embassy compound. An American civilian contractor was killed in a residential area of the embassy compound, and another death was reported in the zone's U.N. compound.
Further volleys landed Friday, striking the office of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. A guard was killed. Hashemi was not in his office at the time. U.S. officials in the Green Zone have been advised to stay indoors and wear body armor when they venture out.
Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City, engaging Humvees as well as the Strykers. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.
"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
In August, Sadr ordered his militia to observe a cease-fire, a move widely credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq. In recent days, Sadr officials have said the cease-fire remains in force. But in practice, his fighters and Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging full-scale war in places. Further fighting with his men could slow U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
American commanders said in recent days that their units were taking only a backup role in the offensive and that Iraqi forces were growing strong enough to shoulder the country's security needs.
Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not make an accurate assessment of what the Post reporter saw without knowing the precise location. He underlined that U.S. troops were playing a backup role in the offensive but that on a battlefield that is "360 degrees," it might seem at times that they were out front. If an Iraqi unit was about to be overwhelmed by an enemy, "of course we are going to assist."
On Thursday, thousands of followers of Sadr turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad. Iraqi television channels carried crowd scenes in which people carried a coffin draped in flags and decorated with a portrait of Maliki. They denounced him as a "new dictator" and chanted: "Maliki, keep your hands off. People do not want you."
Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms stormed the Baghdad home of a well-known member of Maliki's government, Tahseen al-Sheikhli, and took him hostage, according to the Information Ministry. Sheikhli is a chief spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, in charge of building public support for government efforts to quell violence in the city.
As fighting continued in Basra, saboteurs blew up one of the city's main oil pipelines. Gunmen opened fire on the city's police chief, wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammad, director of military operations at Iraq's Defense Ministry, said the Basra operation would continue until security forces captured the outlaws or wiped them out. He said the Iraqi military planned to seal and search every neighborhood to capture suspected criminals and confiscate weapons.
But an adviser to Iraqi security forces, who had predicted that the fight in Basra would take 10 days, said it could go on much longer. He also said Iraqi forces were calling on U.S. and British forces for help. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
"I think the government can't win this battle without interference of Americans or British," he said. "I think the aid or assistance is on the way." In his view, the Iraqi military needed air coverage and help with logistics and intelligence.
The fighters "are opening many, many fronts against the army," he said. The adviser said the militia's weapons, some of them made in Iran, are more powerful than those of the Iraqi army.
So far, casualties in Basra on all sides have totaled about 400 killed and 300 wounded, he said.
Holloway, the British military spokesman, said Iraqi security forces were "consolidating their current positions" and preparing for the next stage of the offensive. They were cordoning off areas and trying to gain control of the city "bite-size chunk by bite-size chunk."
Residents in Basra said they observed Mahdi Army militiamen gathering in their neighborhood stronghold of Jumhuriyah, assembling men and weapons while dodging gunfire from Iraqi army snipers at intersections.
Staff writers Karen DeYoung and Howard Schneider in Washington and special correspondents Naseer Nouri, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim and Dalya Hassan in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Across Iraq, battles erupt with Mahdi Army
This is from the CSmonitor. This is the end of the ceasefire. Sadr was just about to retire to contemplate for a while when this attack on the Mahdi militia was mounted. Now Sadr is back and leading against the Maliki government and the U.S. The relative calm is now ended. Of course not much attention is being paid to this back in the U.S. or to the fact that the 4,000 mark has now been surpassed in U.S. casualties. Unless the Maliki govt. and the U.S. stand down and stop these attacks there may be a bloody civil war.
Across Iraq, battles erupt with Mahdi Army
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fought US, Iraqi forces in Baghdad and Basra on Tuesday.
By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Baghdad
The Mahdi Army's seven-month-long cease-fire appears to have come undone.
Rockets fired from the capital's Shiite district of Sadr City slammed into the Green Zone Tuesday, the second time in three days, and firefights erupted around Baghdad pitting government and US forces against the militia allied to the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
At the same time, the oil-export city of Basra became a battleground Tuesday as Iraqi forces, backed by US air power, launched a major crackdown on the Mahdi Army elements. British and US forces were guarding the border with Iran to intercept incoming weapons or fighters, according to a senior security official in Basra.
The US blames the latest attacks on rogue Mahdi Army elements tied to Iran, but analysts say the spike in fighting with Shiite militants potentially opens a second front in the war when the American military is still doing battle with the Sunni extremists of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"The cease-fire is over; we have been told to fight the Americans," said one Mahdi Army militiaman, who was reached by telephone in Sadr City. This same man, when interviewed in January, had stated that he was abiding by the cease-fire and that he was keeping busy running his cellular phone store.
Sadr City residents say they saw fighting Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in several parts of the district. One eyewitness, in the adjacent neighborhood of Baghdad Jadida, who wished to remain anonymous, said he saw a heavy militia presence on the streets, with two fighters planting roadside bombs on a main thoroughfare.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover of the Baghdad-based 4th Infantry Division said that in the span of 12 hours Tuesday 16 rockets were fired at the Green Zone and nine rockets and 18 mortar rounds fell on US bases and combat outposts on the east side of Baghdad. A mortar round hit a US patrol in the northern Adhamiyah district, killing one US soldier. A roadside bomb set a US Humvee on fire in Sadr City but all soldiers inside survived. He said clashes broke out between American forces and militiamen when they attacked several government checkpoints in the district and that some of these posts are now manned by both US and Iraqi forces.
Almost exactly four years ago, American forces and Mr. Sadr's loyalists clashed on the streets of Baghdad's Sadr City and the holy city of Najaf shortly after the US shuttered his newspaper for allegedly inciting violence. That round of fighting lasted several months and at one point the Americans were aiming to arrest Sadr, a cleric whose religious credentials come from his father who was widely influential and loved.
The fighting burnished Sadr's standing among fellow Shiites wary of the US occupation. Over the years, the US has repeatedly accused elements within the Sadrist movement of having ties with Iran and even Lebanon's Hizbullah.
After rockets hit the Green Zone Sunday, US commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus said the weapons had been provided by Iran.
On Tuesday, Rear Adm. Greg Smith, spokesman for US-led multinational forces in Iraq, blamed the elite Quds units of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for supplying the 22 107-mm and 122-mm rockets that hit the heavily fortified area of Baghdad that is home to the US Embassy.
"We believe the violence is being instigated by members of special groups that are beholden to the Iranian Quds Force and not Sadr.... Although we are concerned, we know that very few Iraqis want a return to the violence they experienced before the surge," he says.
Admiral Smith says US and Iraqi forces were facing two distinct enemies in Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Iranian-trained and supplied special groups. But he adds, "AQI is still Iraq's No. 1 enemy."
There is growing concern, however, that Iran could respond to such US accusations. "This is pretty serious, and if the Iranians do not back down rapidly this will escalate," says Martin Navias, an analyst at Britain's Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London. "The US has a number of problems with Iran, mainly the nuclear program and its behavior in Iraq. There are many people in the Bush administration who want to hit Iran."
While Iraqi troops fought with Shiite militants in Basra Tuesday, a contingent of Coalition troops, including British and US forces, mobilized at Basra's border with Iran to prevent militiamen from escaping or smuggling in ammunition and weapons, according to a senior security source in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his remarks.
The US military refused to comment on this, citing "security reasons" during ongoing operations, while another spokesman, Col. Bill Buckner, said the Basra operation was Iraqi-led and that the US was providing "limited assistance" mainly in "intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and ... support aircraft."
The US military has regularly accused Iran of smuggling weapons into Iraq over this border, particularly armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFP) that have been blamed for the deaths of many US soldiers in Iraq.
"This is a major operation aimed at outlaws and removing all heavy weapons and explosives from the hands of militias inside the city. It has now escalated into fighting between the Iraqi Army and the Mahdi Army because they are resisting," the security official said by phone from Basra, a few hours after the start of the offensive dubbed "The Knights' Assault."
The Basra-based official said that fighting is now centered in Mahdi Army strongholds in the neighborhoods of Tamimiyah, Hayaniyah, and Five Miles, and that there was also fighting in the neighboring provinces of Nasiriyah and Maysan.
A curfew has also been imposed in Nasiriyah and other southern cities, such as Samawa and Kut, the scene of clashes involving the Mahdi Army over the past two weeks.
One Basra resident reached by phone said he was holed up at his office at the local branch of the ministry of trade, and described the sound of explosions and gunfire as "terrifying."
Two Iraqi Army battalions and five battalions of the National Police's quick-reaction force were dispatched to Basra, where an entire Army division is already stationed.
"The lawlessness is going on under religious or political cover along with oil, weapons, and drug smuggling. These outlaws found support from inside government institutions either willingly or by coercion ... turning Basra into a place where no citizen can feel secure for his life and property," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a statement read on state television, which reported that Mr. Maliki along with the ministers of defense and interior were all in Basra to oversee the operation.
The reaction from Sadr's camp was swift. At a press conference in the holy city of Najaf, three of the cleric's top lieutenants condemned the government offensive and accused Maliki, a Shiite, of carrying out a US agenda. They also threatened a nationwide campaign of protests and civil disobedience if US and Iraqi forces continued to fight the Mahdi Army.
Smith, the military spokesman, said the US would not stop this campaign if it remained peaceful.
One of the movement's leaders, Liwa Smaisim, described as "preposterous" US claims that it was only targeting splinter elements of the Mahdi Army.
Hazem al-Aaraji, another leader usually based in Baghdad, said the current fighting was a continuation of a campaign by the movement's Shiite rivals in the Iraqi government to finish it off – a drive it began last fall in southern Iraq.
Sadr's influence was felt throughout Baghdad Tuesday, highlighting the risk that the fight in Basra may spread to the capital, home to a large segment of his supporters. On Tuesday, witnesses reported that gun battles broke out in the capital's Sadr City district between the militia and rivals from the Badr Organization, which is part of Maliki's ruling Shiite coalition.
The offices of one of the branches of Maliki’s Dawa Party was torched in Sadr City, according to the US military.
On Monday evening, pickup trucks filled with chanting Mahdi militiamen, within sight of Iraqi forces, were forcing shopkeepers in many parts of Baghdad's west side to close in protest of US and Iraq Army raids.
On Tuesday, all shops in the Mahdi Army stronghold neighborhoods – Bayiaa, Iskan, Shuala, and Washash – were shuttered. Leaflets saying "No, no to America" were plastered on each storefront. Anti-American banners hung right next to Iraqi government checkpoints.
Several people interviewed in the Amel neighborhood said they were forced by militiamen to return home when they tried to go to work this morning. "This is anarchy," says Ali al-Yasseri.
• Awadh al-Taiee in Baghdad and a Najaf-based Iraqi journalist contributed reporting.
© 2008 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
Across Iraq, battles erupt with Mahdi Army
Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fought US, Iraqi forces in Baghdad and Basra on Tuesday.
By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Baghdad
The Mahdi Army's seven-month-long cease-fire appears to have come undone.
Rockets fired from the capital's Shiite district of Sadr City slammed into the Green Zone Tuesday, the second time in three days, and firefights erupted around Baghdad pitting government and US forces against the militia allied to the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
At the same time, the oil-export city of Basra became a battleground Tuesday as Iraqi forces, backed by US air power, launched a major crackdown on the Mahdi Army elements. British and US forces were guarding the border with Iran to intercept incoming weapons or fighters, according to a senior security official in Basra.
The US blames the latest attacks on rogue Mahdi Army elements tied to Iran, but analysts say the spike in fighting with Shiite militants potentially opens a second front in the war when the American military is still doing battle with the Sunni extremists of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"The cease-fire is over; we have been told to fight the Americans," said one Mahdi Army militiaman, who was reached by telephone in Sadr City. This same man, when interviewed in January, had stated that he was abiding by the cease-fire and that he was keeping busy running his cellular phone store.
Sadr City residents say they saw fighting Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in several parts of the district. One eyewitness, in the adjacent neighborhood of Baghdad Jadida, who wished to remain anonymous, said he saw a heavy militia presence on the streets, with two fighters planting roadside bombs on a main thoroughfare.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover of the Baghdad-based 4th Infantry Division said that in the span of 12 hours Tuesday 16 rockets were fired at the Green Zone and nine rockets and 18 mortar rounds fell on US bases and combat outposts on the east side of Baghdad. A mortar round hit a US patrol in the northern Adhamiyah district, killing one US soldier. A roadside bomb set a US Humvee on fire in Sadr City but all soldiers inside survived. He said clashes broke out between American forces and militiamen when they attacked several government checkpoints in the district and that some of these posts are now manned by both US and Iraqi forces.
Almost exactly four years ago, American forces and Mr. Sadr's loyalists clashed on the streets of Baghdad's Sadr City and the holy city of Najaf shortly after the US shuttered his newspaper for allegedly inciting violence. That round of fighting lasted several months and at one point the Americans were aiming to arrest Sadr, a cleric whose religious credentials come from his father who was widely influential and loved.
The fighting burnished Sadr's standing among fellow Shiites wary of the US occupation. Over the years, the US has repeatedly accused elements within the Sadrist movement of having ties with Iran and even Lebanon's Hizbullah.
After rockets hit the Green Zone Sunday, US commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus said the weapons had been provided by Iran.
On Tuesday, Rear Adm. Greg Smith, spokesman for US-led multinational forces in Iraq, blamed the elite Quds units of Iran's Revolutionary Guards for supplying the 22 107-mm and 122-mm rockets that hit the heavily fortified area of Baghdad that is home to the US Embassy.
"We believe the violence is being instigated by members of special groups that are beholden to the Iranian Quds Force and not Sadr.... Although we are concerned, we know that very few Iraqis want a return to the violence they experienced before the surge," he says.
Admiral Smith says US and Iraqi forces were facing two distinct enemies in Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Iranian-trained and supplied special groups. But he adds, "AQI is still Iraq's No. 1 enemy."
There is growing concern, however, that Iran could respond to such US accusations. "This is pretty serious, and if the Iranians do not back down rapidly this will escalate," says Martin Navias, an analyst at Britain's Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London. "The US has a number of problems with Iran, mainly the nuclear program and its behavior in Iraq. There are many people in the Bush administration who want to hit Iran."
While Iraqi troops fought with Shiite militants in Basra Tuesday, a contingent of Coalition troops, including British and US forces, mobilized at Basra's border with Iran to prevent militiamen from escaping or smuggling in ammunition and weapons, according to a senior security source in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his remarks.
The US military refused to comment on this, citing "security reasons" during ongoing operations, while another spokesman, Col. Bill Buckner, said the Basra operation was Iraqi-led and that the US was providing "limited assistance" mainly in "intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and ... support aircraft."
The US military has regularly accused Iran of smuggling weapons into Iraq over this border, particularly armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFP) that have been blamed for the deaths of many US soldiers in Iraq.
"This is a major operation aimed at outlaws and removing all heavy weapons and explosives from the hands of militias inside the city. It has now escalated into fighting between the Iraqi Army and the Mahdi Army because they are resisting," the security official said by phone from Basra, a few hours after the start of the offensive dubbed "The Knights' Assault."
The Basra-based official said that fighting is now centered in Mahdi Army strongholds in the neighborhoods of Tamimiyah, Hayaniyah, and Five Miles, and that there was also fighting in the neighboring provinces of Nasiriyah and Maysan.
A curfew has also been imposed in Nasiriyah and other southern cities, such as Samawa and Kut, the scene of clashes involving the Mahdi Army over the past two weeks.
One Basra resident reached by phone said he was holed up at his office at the local branch of the ministry of trade, and described the sound of explosions and gunfire as "terrifying."
Two Iraqi Army battalions and five battalions of the National Police's quick-reaction force were dispatched to Basra, where an entire Army division is already stationed.
"The lawlessness is going on under religious or political cover along with oil, weapons, and drug smuggling. These outlaws found support from inside government institutions either willingly or by coercion ... turning Basra into a place where no citizen can feel secure for his life and property," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a statement read on state television, which reported that Mr. Maliki along with the ministers of defense and interior were all in Basra to oversee the operation.
The reaction from Sadr's camp was swift. At a press conference in the holy city of Najaf, three of the cleric's top lieutenants condemned the government offensive and accused Maliki, a Shiite, of carrying out a US agenda. They also threatened a nationwide campaign of protests and civil disobedience if US and Iraqi forces continued to fight the Mahdi Army.
Smith, the military spokesman, said the US would not stop this campaign if it remained peaceful.
One of the movement's leaders, Liwa Smaisim, described as "preposterous" US claims that it was only targeting splinter elements of the Mahdi Army.
Hazem al-Aaraji, another leader usually based in Baghdad, said the current fighting was a continuation of a campaign by the movement's Shiite rivals in the Iraqi government to finish it off – a drive it began last fall in southern Iraq.
Sadr's influence was felt throughout Baghdad Tuesday, highlighting the risk that the fight in Basra may spread to the capital, home to a large segment of his supporters. On Tuesday, witnesses reported that gun battles broke out in the capital's Sadr City district between the militia and rivals from the Badr Organization, which is part of Maliki's ruling Shiite coalition.
The offices of one of the branches of Maliki’s Dawa Party was torched in Sadr City, according to the US military.
On Monday evening, pickup trucks filled with chanting Mahdi militiamen, within sight of Iraqi forces, were forcing shopkeepers in many parts of Baghdad's west side to close in protest of US and Iraq Army raids.
On Tuesday, all shops in the Mahdi Army stronghold neighborhoods – Bayiaa, Iskan, Shuala, and Washash – were shuttered. Leaflets saying "No, no to America" were plastered on each storefront. Anti-American banners hung right next to Iraqi government checkpoints.
Several people interviewed in the Amel neighborhood said they were forced by militiamen to return home when they tried to go to work this morning. "This is anarchy," says Ali al-Yasseri.
• Awadh al-Taiee in Baghdad and a Najaf-based Iraqi journalist contributed reporting.
© 2008 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Iraq's Sadr to drop out of politics
This is from antiwar.com. It is difficult to say what consequences this might have. Obviously some of Sadr's comrades have decided to act on their own and violate the ceasefire. Perhaps his withdrawal from the scene will create even more fissures within his supporters. I expect he will be back in time.
Iraq's Sadr to drop out of politics
By Liz Sly
Tribune correspondent
5:16 PM CST, March 7, 2008
BAGHDAD—Iraq's elusive Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has decided to drop out of politics for the time being because his disillusionment with the political scene in Iraq has left him sick and anxious, he said in an unusually personal letter to his followers released Friday.
In a written response to a query from a group of followers asking why he hadn't been seen in public for so long, Sadr said he had decided to devote himself to a period of study, reflection and prayer after failing in his core mission to rid Iraq of the U.S. occupation or to turn it into Islamic society.
He also cited the betrayal of some of his followers, whom he accused of falling prey to "materialistic" politics.
"So far I did not succeed either to liberate Iraq or make it an Islamic society – whether because of my own inability or the inability of society, only God knows," he wrote.
"The continued presence of the occupiers, on the one hand, and the disobedience of many on the other, pushed me to isolate myself in protest.
"I gave society a big proportion of my life. Even my body became weaker, I got more sicknesses and more anxiety."
Speculation has been intensifying as to the whereabouts of the maverick cleric, whose Mahdi Army militia twice fought the U.S. army in 2004 and then was accused of many of the sectarian killings of Sunnis that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
His last public statement came two weeks ago, when he renewed the 6-month cease-fire that has been credited with helping bring down the levels of violence in Iraq.
But he has not been seen in public since last May. Sadrist officials said in January that he was studying to become an ayatollah in the holy city of Najaf, a position that would give the 30-something leader greater religious authority over the movement he inherited from his slain father. The U.S. military and some Iraqi officials say he is living in the Iranian city of Qom.
This was the first time Sadr himself has sought to explain his absence, which had given rise to speculation that he is no longer exerting full control over the Mahdi Army.
Sadr's chief spokesman, Salah al-Obeidi, disputed suggestions that the letter's doleful tone suggested Sadr is contemplating a prolonged absence from politics.
"He remains actively involved in the political field and will return when the time is right," he said, citing the fact that most members of the Mahdi Army have obeyed the cease-fire order as evidence that Sadr continues to command the militia's loyalties.
The letter came as police raised the death toll in Thursday's double bombing in a busy Baghdad shopping street to 68. It was the bloodiest single attack in Baghdad since the level of violence began to fall last summer, and the U.S. Embassy issued a statement blaming Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"Such indiscriminate mass violence demonstrates that Al Qaeda in Iraq will spare no effort, however brutal, to attempt to reignite sectarian strife in Iraq," the statement said.
.
Iraq's Sadr to drop out of politics
By Liz Sly
Tribune correspondent
5:16 PM CST, March 7, 2008
BAGHDAD—Iraq's elusive Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has decided to drop out of politics for the time being because his disillusionment with the political scene in Iraq has left him sick and anxious, he said in an unusually personal letter to his followers released Friday.
In a written response to a query from a group of followers asking why he hadn't been seen in public for so long, Sadr said he had decided to devote himself to a period of study, reflection and prayer after failing in his core mission to rid Iraq of the U.S. occupation or to turn it into Islamic society.
He also cited the betrayal of some of his followers, whom he accused of falling prey to "materialistic" politics.
"So far I did not succeed either to liberate Iraq or make it an Islamic society – whether because of my own inability or the inability of society, only God knows," he wrote.
"The continued presence of the occupiers, on the one hand, and the disobedience of many on the other, pushed me to isolate myself in protest.
"I gave society a big proportion of my life. Even my body became weaker, I got more sicknesses and more anxiety."
Speculation has been intensifying as to the whereabouts of the maverick cleric, whose Mahdi Army militia twice fought the U.S. army in 2004 and then was accused of many of the sectarian killings of Sunnis that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
His last public statement came two weeks ago, when he renewed the 6-month cease-fire that has been credited with helping bring down the levels of violence in Iraq.
But he has not been seen in public since last May. Sadrist officials said in January that he was studying to become an ayatollah in the holy city of Najaf, a position that would give the 30-something leader greater religious authority over the movement he inherited from his slain father. The U.S. military and some Iraqi officials say he is living in the Iranian city of Qom.
This was the first time Sadr himself has sought to explain his absence, which had given rise to speculation that he is no longer exerting full control over the Mahdi Army.
Sadr's chief spokesman, Salah al-Obeidi, disputed suggestions that the letter's doleful tone suggested Sadr is contemplating a prolonged absence from politics.
"He remains actively involved in the political field and will return when the time is right," he said, citing the fact that most members of the Mahdi Army have obeyed the cease-fire order as evidence that Sadr continues to command the militia's loyalties.
The letter came as police raised the death toll in Thursday's double bombing in a busy Baghdad shopping street to 68. It was the bloodiest single attack in Baghdad since the level of violence began to fall last summer, and the U.S. Embassy issued a statement blaming Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"Such indiscriminate mass violence demonstrates that Al Qaeda in Iraq will spare no effort, however brutal, to attempt to reignite sectarian strife in Iraq," the statement said.
.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Al Sadr demans end to Turkish incursion.
The Turkish incursion has the effect of creating some unity between groups that are often at loggerheads. Al Sadr is very much an Iraqi nationalist and does not look favorably on Kurdish separatism or regionalism. However, it is interesting that Al Sadr also blames the occupying authorities for the situation implying (no doubt correctly) that the U.S. has in effect allowed if not sanctioned the incursion. The U.S. should have acted long ago and the Turks simply lost patience as virtually nothing was done to stop the PKK in northern Iraq.
Muqtada al-Sadr's office demands end to Turkish military offensive in northern Iraq
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 24, 2008
BAGHDAD: Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office demanded on Sunday an immediate withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Iraq and advised negotiations instead.
"We demand that the Turkish government withdraw its forces immediately from the Iraqi territory and rely on negotiations to solve this conflict," al-Sadr's influential political committee said in a statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"We call upon the Muslim neighbor Turkey through its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and its Muslim people to be an element of peace and security in the region," the statement added.
The Sadrists also held the Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces responsible for the "deteriorating security situation on our northern borders."
"The government is called upon to move rapidly to guarantee the security of our Muslim Kurdish people according to its constitutional responsibilities," the statement said. Al-Sadr's political committee is composed of senior members of al-Sadr's movement.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sadr's Militia Enforces Cease-Fire with a Deadly Purge
To a considerable extent the decrease in violence in Iraq has little to do with the surge and much more to deal with changed tactics by both sides. The anti-U.S. Sunnis have been paid by the U.S. to deal with Al Qaeda and Sadr has decided to consolidate his power while declaring a ceasefire against the U.S. The U.S. has in effect helped him destroy some rebels against Sadr's leadership. These are allies of convenience both basically anti-U.S. and if conditions change they will once again turn against the occupiers. There are also indications that at the grassroots level many want the "freeze" to end.
It is interesting how U.S. attitudes can reverse direction in the blink of an eye. Al Sadr has all of a sudden become "honorable" etc. and is flattered simply because he is pursuing policies that the U.S. approves. He is just as radical and brutal as ever but that means nothing. Stand by a month from now he make be back in his original media role as a big threat a radical, etc. etc.
Sadr's Militia Enforces Cease-Fire With a Deadly Purge
By Amit R. PaleyWashington Post Foreign ServiceThursday, February 21, 2008; A10
BAGHDAD -- The Mahdi Army fighters recalled dragging the 25-year-old man into a dark house where, while verses were chanted from the Koran, he was hanged from a hook in the ceiling.
The execution, carried out last month by Iraq's largest Shiite militia, would have been unexceptional but for one fact: The victim was one of its own.
The man, a Mahdi Army commander whose nom de guerre was Hamza, had killed and kidnapped scores of people despite what was then a five-month-old order to militia members to lay down their weapons, group leaders said. So after Hamza confessed to his crimes during repeated interrogations, a three-page death sentence was issued by the office of the militia's leader, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, they said.
"We were ordered to eliminate him and we did," said Mohammed Ali, 24, a commander of the militia in the Sholeh neighborhood who took part in the operation and described how it took place. "This is how we have been cleaning the Mahdi Army."
Hundreds of Mahdi Army members have been similarly executed, jailed or excommunicated by the militia since the freeze was ordered by Sadr in late August, part of a nationwide reorganization that has dramatically altered the group's public image in Iraq and has been a crucial reason for the recent downturn in violence, according to senior militia leaders and U.S. officials.
The purge has boosted Sadr's reputation -- particularly among American commanders who once considered him an enemy but now refer to him respectfully -- while also helping Sadr exert more control over his sprawling irregular army. At the same time, members say, the freeze has made the Sadrist movement more vulnerable to attacks and repression by rival Shiite groups.
Sadr is expected to announce by Saturday whether the freeze will be extended, his aides said. But interviews with more than a dozen leaders of the Sadrist movement suggest that whether or not it is continued, the freeze has already transformed the militia and its place in Iraqi society.
"The freeze brought many secrets to the surface," said Ahmed Abdul Hussein, 33, a Mahdi Army leader from Sadr City, a vast Shiite district of Baghdad. "Now we know who is good and who is bad. Now everyone thinks of the Mahdi Army in a new light. I think everything will be different now."
Last summer, Mahdi Army members were widely viewed as having carried out some of the most vicious violence against Sunnis, pushing the country to the brink of civil war. The militia clashed often with U.S. and British forces.
The militia's public image reached its nadir when more than 50 people were killed in the holy city of Karbala because of fierce fighting between the Mahdi Army and forces loyal to its chief Shiite political rival, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The next day, on Aug. 29, Sadr declared a six-month suspension of the militia's operations.
Sadr's office said at the time that the aim of the freeze was to push out elements not under the cleric's control.
"The freeze has helped us to distinguish and push out the bad figures," said Salah al-Obaidi, a top Sadr aide, who added that the militia now has more than 100,000 followers.
Abu Jaffar, 31, a day laborer from the Shaab area of Baghdad, was one of those purged, according to current Mahdi Army members.
Shortly after the freeze was declared, Abu Jaffar said in a telephone interview, he received a summons from a Mahdi Army unit known as the Golden Battalion, often described as an intelligence service that maintains internal discipline. Abu Jaffar said the battalion members blamed him for allowing the 100 or so men under his command to commit crimes against civilians.
"They came to me and said, 'Why didn't you know about the mistakes of your people when you are the commander of this company?' " said Abu Jaffar, who, like others interviewed for this article, would not give his full name for fear that it would lead to his arrest by U.S. or Iraqi forces. "They said, 'You are not capable to command.' And because of that I was fired."
Abu Jaffar said he learned that his men had kidnapped and fought with people, though he declined to give details and said he had no knowledge of their actions. Other Mahdi Army leaders, however, said that the company was also linked to killings of civilians and that Abu Jaffar was aware they were taking place.
"The Mahdi Army was strict with me because it is controlled by a strict law," Abu Jaffar said. "It doesn't permit any mistakes."
Signs of the purge dot the sewer-filled streets of Sadr City, which the Mahdi Army controls.
During some Friday afternoon prayers, the names of those expelled from the militia are read aloud. Many of those identified flee their neighborhoods and sometimes the country to avoid punishment.
Some walls bear posters announcing who has been purged and why, though these are often quickly ripped down by friends and family members of the accused.
One flier, addressed to "All Mahdi Army Members" from the militia's Baghdad Battalion, reported the firing of one member because of his "immoral actions" and "use of the blessed name of the army to loot, kidnap and bargain."
Elegant calligraphy at the top of the flier read: "Lions in the day and priests in the night."
In many Sadrist strongholds, the militia's focus has shifted from militancy to providing services to residents, as the Mahdi Army continues recasting itself as a political and social force.
On a recent afternoon at the main Sadr office in Sadr City, a woman dressed in a black head-to-toe abaya arrived and began explaining that her husband was beating her.
"I have problems!" wailed the woman, who gave her name as Um Mohammed. "I need the help of the Sadr office."
After about 15 minutes, an official scribbled a note requesting that her husband come to the office for mediation.
"We solve hundreds of problems like this," said the official, Abu Haider. "This is what the Mahdi Army is doing now."
But many residents grumble that robberies, car thefts and other crimes in some parts of the city have gone up since the militia was ordered to lay down its weapons. And in southern Iraq, Sadrists have complained that they have been victimized by rival forces, leading many to demand that the freeze be lifted.
Amar Jabar Saadoon, 35, a Karbala resident who fled to Sadr City, said security forces linked to the armed wing of the Supreme Council destroyed his house and threatened his family.
"We pray to God that the freeze will end soon," he said.
U.S. military commanders, who have fought some of their bloodiest battles of the war against the militia, now praise Sadr and say the Mahdi Army is no longer participating in violence. Anyone disobeying the freeze, they say, cannot be a member in good standing of the militia. The military refers to splinter elements as "special groups" and links them primarily to Iran.
U.S. officials and some Mahdi Army members view the freeze as Sadr's attempt to cleanse Iranian elements from the militia.
"They said, 'Look, we have two foreign influences that are battling for control of Iraq: Iran and the American occupation,' " said a senior U.S. Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic ground rules. " 'And of the two, we need to be more concerned with Iran. We can deal with the U.S. politically and they are going to withdraw soon anyways.' "
Although American officials say they do not have direct contact with Sadr, they convey messages to him through intermediaries and have publicly flattered him.
The commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Jeffery W. Hammond, whose soldiers were killed in fighting with the Mahdi Army during his first tour in Iraq, now refers to the militia's leader as "the honorable Moqtada al-Sadr."
"His decision to order the freeze has been a most honorable decision," Hammond said.
Sunni leaders, who as recently as last year were accusing Mahdi Army members of sectarian cleansing, said the freeze has ended most of the horrific violence by the militia. "We are not afraid of them now," Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni and one of the country's two vice presidents, said in an interview. "Now we don't have eye-catching sectarian strife."
But there are still areas where men professing to be Mahdi Army members continue to engage in sectarian violence.
In December, a dozen Mahdi Army fighters on motorcycles stormed into an ice factory in the capital's Tobji neighborhood and kidnapped its Sunni owner, Maath Salman Feneer, a 30-year-old with three children, according to his family.
When the family complained to the Sadr office in Tobji, officials there said the attack had been carried out by Mahdi Army fighters in the neighboring Hurriyah area, according to Feneer's cousin, Ahmed Abdullah. He said the office in Tobji told the kidnappers to return Feneer or a complaint would be made to the main Sadr office in Najaf.
In discussions with the family about a ransom, the kidnappers disregarded the threat and used an expletive to refer to Sadr. "We don't take orders from anyone," they said, Abdullah recalled. His cousin's bullet-riddled body was found a few days later.
"I don't trust anyone in the Mahdi Army," said Abdullah, 37, a plumbing store owner. "They are all killers."
At the Sadr office in Sadr City, Salman al-Fareji, the local head of the organization, disagreed. "The main reason for the freeze is to save the Iraqi blood," he said. "This is our goal. This is our brightest hope."
It is interesting how U.S. attitudes can reverse direction in the blink of an eye. Al Sadr has all of a sudden become "honorable" etc. and is flattered simply because he is pursuing policies that the U.S. approves. He is just as radical and brutal as ever but that means nothing. Stand by a month from now he make be back in his original media role as a big threat a radical, etc. etc.
Sadr's Militia Enforces Cease-Fire With a Deadly Purge
By Amit R. PaleyWashington Post Foreign ServiceThursday, February 21, 2008; A10
BAGHDAD -- The Mahdi Army fighters recalled dragging the 25-year-old man into a dark house where, while verses were chanted from the Koran, he was hanged from a hook in the ceiling.
The execution, carried out last month by Iraq's largest Shiite militia, would have been unexceptional but for one fact: The victim was one of its own.
The man, a Mahdi Army commander whose nom de guerre was Hamza, had killed and kidnapped scores of people despite what was then a five-month-old order to militia members to lay down their weapons, group leaders said. So after Hamza confessed to his crimes during repeated interrogations, a three-page death sentence was issued by the office of the militia's leader, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, they said.
"We were ordered to eliminate him and we did," said Mohammed Ali, 24, a commander of the militia in the Sholeh neighborhood who took part in the operation and described how it took place. "This is how we have been cleaning the Mahdi Army."
Hundreds of Mahdi Army members have been similarly executed, jailed or excommunicated by the militia since the freeze was ordered by Sadr in late August, part of a nationwide reorganization that has dramatically altered the group's public image in Iraq and has been a crucial reason for the recent downturn in violence, according to senior militia leaders and U.S. officials.
The purge has boosted Sadr's reputation -- particularly among American commanders who once considered him an enemy but now refer to him respectfully -- while also helping Sadr exert more control over his sprawling irregular army. At the same time, members say, the freeze has made the Sadrist movement more vulnerable to attacks and repression by rival Shiite groups.
Sadr is expected to announce by Saturday whether the freeze will be extended, his aides said. But interviews with more than a dozen leaders of the Sadrist movement suggest that whether or not it is continued, the freeze has already transformed the militia and its place in Iraqi society.
"The freeze brought many secrets to the surface," said Ahmed Abdul Hussein, 33, a Mahdi Army leader from Sadr City, a vast Shiite district of Baghdad. "Now we know who is good and who is bad. Now everyone thinks of the Mahdi Army in a new light. I think everything will be different now."
Last summer, Mahdi Army members were widely viewed as having carried out some of the most vicious violence against Sunnis, pushing the country to the brink of civil war. The militia clashed often with U.S. and British forces.
The militia's public image reached its nadir when more than 50 people were killed in the holy city of Karbala because of fierce fighting between the Mahdi Army and forces loyal to its chief Shiite political rival, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The next day, on Aug. 29, Sadr declared a six-month suspension of the militia's operations.
Sadr's office said at the time that the aim of the freeze was to push out elements not under the cleric's control.
"The freeze has helped us to distinguish and push out the bad figures," said Salah al-Obaidi, a top Sadr aide, who added that the militia now has more than 100,000 followers.
Abu Jaffar, 31, a day laborer from the Shaab area of Baghdad, was one of those purged, according to current Mahdi Army members.
Shortly after the freeze was declared, Abu Jaffar said in a telephone interview, he received a summons from a Mahdi Army unit known as the Golden Battalion, often described as an intelligence service that maintains internal discipline. Abu Jaffar said the battalion members blamed him for allowing the 100 or so men under his command to commit crimes against civilians.
"They came to me and said, 'Why didn't you know about the mistakes of your people when you are the commander of this company?' " said Abu Jaffar, who, like others interviewed for this article, would not give his full name for fear that it would lead to his arrest by U.S. or Iraqi forces. "They said, 'You are not capable to command.' And because of that I was fired."
Abu Jaffar said he learned that his men had kidnapped and fought with people, though he declined to give details and said he had no knowledge of their actions. Other Mahdi Army leaders, however, said that the company was also linked to killings of civilians and that Abu Jaffar was aware they were taking place.
"The Mahdi Army was strict with me because it is controlled by a strict law," Abu Jaffar said. "It doesn't permit any mistakes."
Signs of the purge dot the sewer-filled streets of Sadr City, which the Mahdi Army controls.
During some Friday afternoon prayers, the names of those expelled from the militia are read aloud. Many of those identified flee their neighborhoods and sometimes the country to avoid punishment.
Some walls bear posters announcing who has been purged and why, though these are often quickly ripped down by friends and family members of the accused.
One flier, addressed to "All Mahdi Army Members" from the militia's Baghdad Battalion, reported the firing of one member because of his "immoral actions" and "use of the blessed name of the army to loot, kidnap and bargain."
Elegant calligraphy at the top of the flier read: "Lions in the day and priests in the night."
In many Sadrist strongholds, the militia's focus has shifted from militancy to providing services to residents, as the Mahdi Army continues recasting itself as a political and social force.
On a recent afternoon at the main Sadr office in Sadr City, a woman dressed in a black head-to-toe abaya arrived and began explaining that her husband was beating her.
"I have problems!" wailed the woman, who gave her name as Um Mohammed. "I need the help of the Sadr office."
After about 15 minutes, an official scribbled a note requesting that her husband come to the office for mediation.
"We solve hundreds of problems like this," said the official, Abu Haider. "This is what the Mahdi Army is doing now."
But many residents grumble that robberies, car thefts and other crimes in some parts of the city have gone up since the militia was ordered to lay down its weapons. And in southern Iraq, Sadrists have complained that they have been victimized by rival forces, leading many to demand that the freeze be lifted.
Amar Jabar Saadoon, 35, a Karbala resident who fled to Sadr City, said security forces linked to the armed wing of the Supreme Council destroyed his house and threatened his family.
"We pray to God that the freeze will end soon," he said.
U.S. military commanders, who have fought some of their bloodiest battles of the war against the militia, now praise Sadr and say the Mahdi Army is no longer participating in violence. Anyone disobeying the freeze, they say, cannot be a member in good standing of the militia. The military refers to splinter elements as "special groups" and links them primarily to Iran.
U.S. officials and some Mahdi Army members view the freeze as Sadr's attempt to cleanse Iranian elements from the militia.
"They said, 'Look, we have two foreign influences that are battling for control of Iraq: Iran and the American occupation,' " said a senior U.S. Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic ground rules. " 'And of the two, we need to be more concerned with Iran. We can deal with the U.S. politically and they are going to withdraw soon anyways.' "
Although American officials say they do not have direct contact with Sadr, they convey messages to him through intermediaries and have publicly flattered him.
The commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Jeffery W. Hammond, whose soldiers were killed in fighting with the Mahdi Army during his first tour in Iraq, now refers to the militia's leader as "the honorable Moqtada al-Sadr."
"His decision to order the freeze has been a most honorable decision," Hammond said.
Sunni leaders, who as recently as last year were accusing Mahdi Army members of sectarian cleansing, said the freeze has ended most of the horrific violence by the militia. "We are not afraid of them now," Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni and one of the country's two vice presidents, said in an interview. "Now we don't have eye-catching sectarian strife."
But there are still areas where men professing to be Mahdi Army members continue to engage in sectarian violence.
In December, a dozen Mahdi Army fighters on motorcycles stormed into an ice factory in the capital's Tobji neighborhood and kidnapped its Sunni owner, Maath Salman Feneer, a 30-year-old with three children, according to his family.
When the family complained to the Sadr office in Tobji, officials there said the attack had been carried out by Mahdi Army fighters in the neighboring Hurriyah area, according to Feneer's cousin, Ahmed Abdullah. He said the office in Tobji told the kidnappers to return Feneer or a complaint would be made to the main Sadr office in Najaf.
In discussions with the family about a ransom, the kidnappers disregarded the threat and used an expletive to refer to Sadr. "We don't take orders from anyone," they said, Abdullah recalled. His cousin's bullet-riddled body was found a few days later.
"I don't trust anyone in the Mahdi Army," said Abdullah, 37, a plumbing store owner. "They are all killers."
At the Sadr office in Sadr City, Salman al-Fareji, the local head of the organization, disagreed. "The main reason for the freeze is to save the Iraqi blood," he said. "This is our goal. This is our brightest hope."
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Shia call on Mehdi Army to take up arms again.
The decision of Al Sadr to observe a ceasefire has been one of the reasons there has been less violence in Iraq especially in places such as the Baghdad slum of Sadr City. What violence there has been there has often been the result of splinter groups not under Sadr's control.
I have always considered Sadr not so much a radical as an opportunist. Unless he thinks it is to his advantage to break it he will continue with the ceasefire.
Shia call on Mehdi Army to take up arms again in Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn in BaghdadThursday, 7 February 2008
In the alleys of the ancient district of al-Salaikh in Baghdad, a Shia family fought a fierce gun battle with Sunni militiamen who tried to stop them reoccupying their house from which they had been forced to flee months earlier.
The Shia family got the worst of the fighting and, after suffering seven dead, sent a desperate message asking for help to the Mehdi Army, the powerful Shia militia of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that once would have rushed to defend them. On this occasion, however, the local Mehdi Army commander turned them down, saying: "We can do nothing because we are under orders not to break the ceasefire."
It is this six-month ceasefire, declared on 29 August last year by Mr Sadr, which American commanders say is responsible for cutting much of the violence in Iraq. But the ceasefire will expire in the next few weeks and political and military leaders loyal to Mr Sadr are advising him not to renew it.
They complain that state security organs, in effect controlled by their Shia rivals in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), are using the truce to attack them, particularly in and around the southern city of Diwaniya from which 300 Sadrist families have been expelled. The Sadrists also complain that US troops and the Iraqi army are targeting Mehdi Army leaders and al-Qa'ida has once again started bombing Shia civilians as they did last Friday when two bird markets in Shia districts were attacked, killing 99 people.
Salah al-Ubaidi, the spokesman for Mr Sadr, said a committee of Sadrist legislators said: "They don't want the ceasefire to remain. They want it lifted because of oppressive acts by security forces in Diwaniya".
Mohammed, the head of a Sadrist district office in Baghdad, said that in Diwaniya the security forces "have started arresting the wives and daughters of our men who have fled. There is low morale there as we do not help them because of the ceasefire".
The Sadrist movement is the only real mass movement in Iraq and is the voice of the poor Shia, who make up much of the Iraqi population. It was created by Mr Sadr's revered father, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr – assassinated with two of his sons on the orders of Saddam Hussein in 1999 – and revived by Muqtada in 2003.
Mr Sadr surprised his followers by calling a total ceasefire in August last year after clashes with ISCI-backed security forces in Kerbala. He said he wanted to purge his movement of criminal gangs and anti-Sunni death squads. "Muqtada wanted the Mehdi Army to have a good reputation," said Mohammed. "We vet people now in a way we didn't before. Police come to us and say, 'this criminal says he works for you' and sometimes we say 'yes' and sometimes 'no'."
The Sadrist ability to enforce the ceasefire is impressive given the movement's previous reputation for being so decentralised that it was out of control. "Sadr's followers are strong, patient and stick to their work," said Mohammed. "But we are militarily weak because of the freeze on action."
This claim of weakness is a little exaggerated. The Sadrists probably still control about half of Baghdad and 80 per cent of Shia areas. Often they can get what they want because nobody wants them as an enemy. When 12 Mehdi Army men with weapons, and without papers giving them the right to carry them, were arrested by Interior Ministry officials in Palestine Street, the local Sadrist leader Sheikh Abbas Rubaie called the ministry and said: "Release them by six or you know what we will do." Minutes later they were back on the streets.
Nobody knows what Mr Sadr will decide. One Sadrist said: "Even people close to Muqtada do not know what is happening in his mind." Safar, with close links to the Mehdi Army, said its leaders "informed the marji'iyyah [the senior Shia clerics] to tell [the Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki that if his government does not stop arresting their leaders they will end the ceasefire".
One person who believes the truce will continue is the Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, who has always had good relations with Mr Sadr. He said: "Muqtada and the Sadrists have benefited from the ceasefire. Despite what people say, it has done them good because it makes them look reasonable – something they badly needed."
Though they have closed their military offices, the Sadrists have a dense network of social and cultural activities and often provide the only assistance for poor families. Their help wins them strong support because a recent report by aid agencies said 43 per cent of Iraqis live in "absolute poverty".
The Iraqi government claimed at the end of last year that many of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled abroad are returning because of improved security. But a report by the UN High Commission for Refugees says that, on Iraq's border with Syria, where 1.5 million Iraqis live, only 700 Iraqis travel to Iraq every day and 1,200 go to Syria.
I have always considered Sadr not so much a radical as an opportunist. Unless he thinks it is to his advantage to break it he will continue with the ceasefire.
Shia call on Mehdi Army to take up arms again in Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn in BaghdadThursday, 7 February 2008
In the alleys of the ancient district of al-Salaikh in Baghdad, a Shia family fought a fierce gun battle with Sunni militiamen who tried to stop them reoccupying their house from which they had been forced to flee months earlier.
The Shia family got the worst of the fighting and, after suffering seven dead, sent a desperate message asking for help to the Mehdi Army, the powerful Shia militia of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that once would have rushed to defend them. On this occasion, however, the local Mehdi Army commander turned them down, saying: "We can do nothing because we are under orders not to break the ceasefire."
It is this six-month ceasefire, declared on 29 August last year by Mr Sadr, which American commanders say is responsible for cutting much of the violence in Iraq. But the ceasefire will expire in the next few weeks and political and military leaders loyal to Mr Sadr are advising him not to renew it.
They complain that state security organs, in effect controlled by their Shia rivals in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), are using the truce to attack them, particularly in and around the southern city of Diwaniya from which 300 Sadrist families have been expelled. The Sadrists also complain that US troops and the Iraqi army are targeting Mehdi Army leaders and al-Qa'ida has once again started bombing Shia civilians as they did last Friday when two bird markets in Shia districts were attacked, killing 99 people.
Salah al-Ubaidi, the spokesman for Mr Sadr, said a committee of Sadrist legislators said: "They don't want the ceasefire to remain. They want it lifted because of oppressive acts by security forces in Diwaniya".
Mohammed, the head of a Sadrist district office in Baghdad, said that in Diwaniya the security forces "have started arresting the wives and daughters of our men who have fled. There is low morale there as we do not help them because of the ceasefire".
The Sadrist movement is the only real mass movement in Iraq and is the voice of the poor Shia, who make up much of the Iraqi population. It was created by Mr Sadr's revered father, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr – assassinated with two of his sons on the orders of Saddam Hussein in 1999 – and revived by Muqtada in 2003.
Mr Sadr surprised his followers by calling a total ceasefire in August last year after clashes with ISCI-backed security forces in Kerbala. He said he wanted to purge his movement of criminal gangs and anti-Sunni death squads. "Muqtada wanted the Mehdi Army to have a good reputation," said Mohammed. "We vet people now in a way we didn't before. Police come to us and say, 'this criminal says he works for you' and sometimes we say 'yes' and sometimes 'no'."
The Sadrist ability to enforce the ceasefire is impressive given the movement's previous reputation for being so decentralised that it was out of control. "Sadr's followers are strong, patient and stick to their work," said Mohammed. "But we are militarily weak because of the freeze on action."
This claim of weakness is a little exaggerated. The Sadrists probably still control about half of Baghdad and 80 per cent of Shia areas. Often they can get what they want because nobody wants them as an enemy. When 12 Mehdi Army men with weapons, and without papers giving them the right to carry them, were arrested by Interior Ministry officials in Palestine Street, the local Sadrist leader Sheikh Abbas Rubaie called the ministry and said: "Release them by six or you know what we will do." Minutes later they were back on the streets.
Nobody knows what Mr Sadr will decide. One Sadrist said: "Even people close to Muqtada do not know what is happening in his mind." Safar, with close links to the Mehdi Army, said its leaders "informed the marji'iyyah [the senior Shia clerics] to tell [the Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki that if his government does not stop arresting their leaders they will end the ceasefire".
One person who believes the truce will continue is the Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, who has always had good relations with Mr Sadr. He said: "Muqtada and the Sadrists have benefited from the ceasefire. Despite what people say, it has done them good because it makes them look reasonable – something they badly needed."
Though they have closed their military offices, the Sadrists have a dense network of social and cultural activities and often provide the only assistance for poor families. Their help wins them strong support because a recent report by aid agencies said 43 per cent of Iraqis live in "absolute poverty".
The Iraqi government claimed at the end of last year that many of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled abroad are returning because of improved security. But a report by the UN High Commission for Refugees says that, on Iraq's border with Syria, where 1.5 million Iraqis live, only 700 Iraqis travel to Iraq every day and 1,200 go to Syria.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Discontent in Iraq with daily life issues.
With security issues a bit improved other daily problems are becoming of greater concern. Political wrangling also seems to be on the increase. If Sadr were to abandon his ceasefire then violence could begin to rise again. The cold weather with no heat certainly will not cool tempers.
ANALYSIS: Discontent surges in Iraq
AP NEWS ANALYSIS: Al-Maliki Faces Growing Discontent, Scathing Criticism From Major Backer
HAMZA HENDAWI
AP News
Jan 19, 2008 16:16 EST
In the depths of a strangely cold winter in the Middle East, Iraqis complain that the lights are not on, the kerosene heaters are without fuel and the water doesn't flow — and they blame the government.
And with the war nearing its fifth anniversary, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is feeling the discontent as well from the most powerful political centers in the majority Shiite community.
It's a pincer movement of domestic anger that yet again could threaten al-Maliki's hold on his Green Zone office.
"Where's the kerosene and the water?" asked Amjad Kazim, a 56-year-old Shiite who lives in eastern Baghdad. "We hear a lot of promises but we see nothing."
Little kerosene is available on the state-run market at the subsidized price of $0.52 a gallon. But the fuel can be found on the black market, where it goes for more than $3.79 a gallon.
Overnight temperatures since the first of the year have routinely fallen below freezing when normally they only dip into the upper 30s Fahrenheit.
An average household needs at least 1.32 gallons a day to stay warm, which translates into a monthly expense of $150, or half what an average Iraqi earns.
"I have had no electricity for a week, and I cannot afford to buy it from neighborhood generators," said Hamdiyah Subeih, a 42-year-old homemaker from Baghdad's Shiite Baladiyat district. "I would rather live in Saddam Hussein's hell than the paradise of these new leaders."
Even during the shortages of last summer's heat, most Iraqi's were counting on electricity for air conditioners, fans and refrigeration about half the day. Now it's off for days at a stretch in many areas and on only a few hours daily on average, residents say.
"My children are so happy when the power comes back on they dance," said Marwan Ouni, a 34-year-old college teacher from Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad. "For me, the nonstop power cuts have made my life tedious. It's depressing."
That's the view from below, despite a considerable reduction in violence across the country. The view among those who hold power here is growing equally bilious.
Stinging criticism late last week from Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of parliament's largest Shiite bloc, was a stark break with the past. And a threat by Muqtada al-Sadr, the maverick Shiite cleric who once supported al-Maliki, not to renew an expiring six-month cease-fire he imposed on his feared militia could upend recent security progress.
In admonishing tones, al-Hakim called on the government and parliament not to be "entirely focused on political rivalries at the expense of the everyday problems faced by Iraqis." He also demanded that lawmakers quickly adopt key legislation divvying up the country's oil wealth and setting the rules for provincial elections to be held later this year.
He spoke of administrative and financial corruption, saying Iraqis were now forced to pay bribes to get business done with ministries and government agencies.
"It makes one's heart bleed ... it's a violation of man's freedom and dignity," he told tens of thousands of supporters in Baghdad on Friday.
Al-Hakim's harsh words carry considerable weight because his party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, is al-Maliki's most important backer after al-Sadr pulled ministers loyal to him from the Cabinet last year and took his 30 lawmakers out of the Shiite bloc.
Al-Hakim's focus on the daily hardships of most Iraqis finds a ready audience among those struggling to keep warm through one of the coldest winters in years — it snowed across Baghdad for the first time in living memory on Jan. 11. And al-Sadr's huge following among more radical Shiites could close the pincer on al-Maliki.
Source: AP News
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ANALYSIS: Discontent surges in Iraq
AP NEWS ANALYSIS: Al-Maliki Faces Growing Discontent, Scathing Criticism From Major Backer
HAMZA HENDAWI
AP News
Jan 19, 2008 16:16 EST
In the depths of a strangely cold winter in the Middle East, Iraqis complain that the lights are not on, the kerosene heaters are without fuel and the water doesn't flow — and they blame the government.
And with the war nearing its fifth anniversary, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is feeling the discontent as well from the most powerful political centers in the majority Shiite community.
It's a pincer movement of domestic anger that yet again could threaten al-Maliki's hold on his Green Zone office.
"Where's the kerosene and the water?" asked Amjad Kazim, a 56-year-old Shiite who lives in eastern Baghdad. "We hear a lot of promises but we see nothing."
Little kerosene is available on the state-run market at the subsidized price of $0.52 a gallon. But the fuel can be found on the black market, where it goes for more than $3.79 a gallon.
Overnight temperatures since the first of the year have routinely fallen below freezing when normally they only dip into the upper 30s Fahrenheit.
An average household needs at least 1.32 gallons a day to stay warm, which translates into a monthly expense of $150, or half what an average Iraqi earns.
"I have had no electricity for a week, and I cannot afford to buy it from neighborhood generators," said Hamdiyah Subeih, a 42-year-old homemaker from Baghdad's Shiite Baladiyat district. "I would rather live in Saddam Hussein's hell than the paradise of these new leaders."
Even during the shortages of last summer's heat, most Iraqi's were counting on electricity for air conditioners, fans and refrigeration about half the day. Now it's off for days at a stretch in many areas and on only a few hours daily on average, residents say.
"My children are so happy when the power comes back on they dance," said Marwan Ouni, a 34-year-old college teacher from Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad. "For me, the nonstop power cuts have made my life tedious. It's depressing."
That's the view from below, despite a considerable reduction in violence across the country. The view among those who hold power here is growing equally bilious.
Stinging criticism late last week from Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of parliament's largest Shiite bloc, was a stark break with the past. And a threat by Muqtada al-Sadr, the maverick Shiite cleric who once supported al-Maliki, not to renew an expiring six-month cease-fire he imposed on his feared militia could upend recent security progress.
In admonishing tones, al-Hakim called on the government and parliament not to be "entirely focused on political rivalries at the expense of the everyday problems faced by Iraqis." He also demanded that lawmakers quickly adopt key legislation divvying up the country's oil wealth and setting the rules for provincial elections to be held later this year.
He spoke of administrative and financial corruption, saying Iraqis were now forced to pay bribes to get business done with ministries and government agencies.
"It makes one's heart bleed ... it's a violation of man's freedom and dignity," he told tens of thousands of supporters in Baghdad on Friday.
Al-Hakim's harsh words carry considerable weight because his party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, is al-Maliki's most important backer after al-Sadr pulled ministers loyal to him from the Cabinet last year and took his 30 lawmakers out of the Shiite bloc.
Al-Hakim's focus on the daily hardships of most Iraqis finds a ready audience among those struggling to keep warm through one of the coldest winters in years — it snowed across Baghdad for the first time in living memory on Jan. 11. And al-Sadr's huge following among more radical Shiites could close the pincer on al-Maliki.
Source: AP News
Sponsored Links
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Al Sadr declares unilateral ceasefire
Al Sadr is always see-sawing opportunistically from one position to another. Here he even rejects fighting US forces rather than just Iraqis. It may be that he is having continuing troubles controlling his own militia. If so he will not be concerned if the US should eliminate some of his own troublemakers.
Al-Sadr declares ceasefire in Iraq
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday August 29, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Iraqis carry the coffin of a pilgrim killed in clashes between police forces and Shia fighters in Karbala. Photograph: Qassem Zein/AFP/Getty Images
The Iraqi militia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, called a six-month truce today after fighting with a rival Shia Muslim group in the holy city of Kerbala left more than 50 dead.
A spokesman for the Mahdi army claimed it would lay down its weapons for six months and, during this time, would attack neither rival Shia groups nor the US army.
Mr Sadr, who has thousands of armed men at his command, has called truces before but these have proved to be short-lived.
Although US forces will welcome any respite, most of the attacks they face in the centre and north of the country are from Sunni nationalist groups and al-Qaida in Iraq.
A US military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, said any organisation that worked towards a peaceful Iraq would be appreciated.
Since President George Bush announced in January he was to send an extra 30,000 US troops to Iraq, the Mahdi army has reduced the number of attacks on US forces. Mr Sadr was reported by the US to have sought temporary sanctuary in Iran for a time, though he denied it.
Even when US forces went into Sadr city, a slum area of Baghdad that is the stronghold of Mr Sadr, the widely-predicted bloodbath did not materialise and the Mahdi army has maintained a low profile.
Mr Sadr's truce appears to be in response to a blacklash by fellow Shias over three days of Shia infighting at a time when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Kerbala. The fighting forced many of pilgrims to flee the city.
At least 52 died and 279 were wounded yesterday in the fighting between the Mahdi army and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. A curfew has been imposed on the city.
Hazim al-Araji, an aide to Mr Sadr, read out a statement to Reuters saying the militia would suspend its operations "to restructure it in a way that will preserve its principles". He said Mr Sadr had ordered all his movement's offices shut for three days of mourning.
The restructuring is a hint that he is trying to distance himself from elements in the Mahdi army being blamed for taking violence close to two holy sites, the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. He can claim that parts of the Mahdi army is without his control.
Another aide suggested as much when he said the aim was to remove bad members "working for their personal interests ... to hurt the Mahdi Army's reputation".
Both the Mahdi army and the SIIC have close links with their co-religionists in Iran, though the extent of these relationships are a matter of dispute.
Mr Bush has repeatedly accused the Iranian government this year of meddling in Iraq, including providing weapons to insurgents, and ordered US diplomats and military to adopt a more forceful stance towards Iranians in Iraq.
Tehran protested today after eight Iranians, including two with diplomatic credentials, were arrested by US forces at a checkpoint in Baghdad yesterday as they were heading towards the Sheraton Ishtar hotel. They were released today after the Iraqi government interceded on their behalf.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called the arrests an act of "interference" in Iraq's internal affairs. The Iranians had been accompanied by Iraqis who were providing protection. US troops seized three weapons from the cars for which there had been no permits.
The Iranians were apparently part of an official delegation to discuss cooperation on supplying electricity to villages along the Iraqi border.
Hosyhar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, told the BBC: "After we intervened with the embassy and explained the situation that they were here on legal grounds on a legal basis and they have their visas, their credentials, were established then, they were released."
He added that the detention seemed to be simply a matter of "miscommunication and misunderstanding and some misinformation," and had nothing to do with Mr Bush's speech the same day in which he ramped up the threat to Iran.
In Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Swiss diplomat representing American interests in Iran to protest. The US has no diplomatic links with Iran.
The US is still holding Iranians arrested in the north of Iraq earlier this year that it says were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's al-Quds division.
Al-Sadr declares ceasefire in Iraq
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday August 29, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Iraqis carry the coffin of a pilgrim killed in clashes between police forces and Shia fighters in Karbala. Photograph: Qassem Zein/AFP/Getty Images
The Iraqi militia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, called a six-month truce today after fighting with a rival Shia Muslim group in the holy city of Kerbala left more than 50 dead.
A spokesman for the Mahdi army claimed it would lay down its weapons for six months and, during this time, would attack neither rival Shia groups nor the US army.
Mr Sadr, who has thousands of armed men at his command, has called truces before but these have proved to be short-lived.
Although US forces will welcome any respite, most of the attacks they face in the centre and north of the country are from Sunni nationalist groups and al-Qaida in Iraq.
A US military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, said any organisation that worked towards a peaceful Iraq would be appreciated.
Since President George Bush announced in January he was to send an extra 30,000 US troops to Iraq, the Mahdi army has reduced the number of attacks on US forces. Mr Sadr was reported by the US to have sought temporary sanctuary in Iran for a time, though he denied it.
Even when US forces went into Sadr city, a slum area of Baghdad that is the stronghold of Mr Sadr, the widely-predicted bloodbath did not materialise and the Mahdi army has maintained a low profile.
Mr Sadr's truce appears to be in response to a blacklash by fellow Shias over three days of Shia infighting at a time when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Kerbala. The fighting forced many of pilgrims to flee the city.
At least 52 died and 279 were wounded yesterday in the fighting between the Mahdi army and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. A curfew has been imposed on the city.
Hazim al-Araji, an aide to Mr Sadr, read out a statement to Reuters saying the militia would suspend its operations "to restructure it in a way that will preserve its principles". He said Mr Sadr had ordered all his movement's offices shut for three days of mourning.
The restructuring is a hint that he is trying to distance himself from elements in the Mahdi army being blamed for taking violence close to two holy sites, the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. He can claim that parts of the Mahdi army is without his control.
Another aide suggested as much when he said the aim was to remove bad members "working for their personal interests ... to hurt the Mahdi Army's reputation".
Both the Mahdi army and the SIIC have close links with their co-religionists in Iran, though the extent of these relationships are a matter of dispute.
Mr Bush has repeatedly accused the Iranian government this year of meddling in Iraq, including providing weapons to insurgents, and ordered US diplomats and military to adopt a more forceful stance towards Iranians in Iraq.
Tehran protested today after eight Iranians, including two with diplomatic credentials, were arrested by US forces at a checkpoint in Baghdad yesterday as they were heading towards the Sheraton Ishtar hotel. They were released today after the Iraqi government interceded on their behalf.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called the arrests an act of "interference" in Iraq's internal affairs. The Iranians had been accompanied by Iraqis who were providing protection. US troops seized three weapons from the cars for which there had been no permits.
The Iranians were apparently part of an official delegation to discuss cooperation on supplying electricity to villages along the Iraqi border.
Hosyhar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, told the BBC: "After we intervened with the embassy and explained the situation that they were here on legal grounds on a legal basis and they have their visas, their credentials, were established then, they were released."
He added that the detention seemed to be simply a matter of "miscommunication and misunderstanding and some misinformation," and had nothing to do with Mr Bush's speech the same day in which he ramped up the threat to Iran.
In Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Swiss diplomat representing American interests in Iran to protest. The US has no diplomatic links with Iran.
The US is still holding Iranians arrested in the north of Iraq earlier this year that it says were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's al-Quds division.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Widening rift between Maliki and Sadr group
I just wonder how long Maliki's govt. will be able to survive. There are more and more defections and even plans it seems to have a vote of non-confidence. So far the US does not support opposition groups or says it doesn't!
Rift between Sadr bloc and Iraqi PM widens
08 Jul 2007 15:47:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
Al
BAGHDAD, July 8 (Reuters) - A powerful Shi'ite bloc lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday after he accused it of failing to take a clear stance on violence, signalling a deepening rift between Maliki and a former backer.
Followers from the movement of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose support propelled Maliki into the prime minister's office last year, also held street protests in Baghdad in the wake of the Iraqi leader's comments on Saturday.
"This government is at the edge of an abyss. It will collapse," said Ahmed al-Shaibany, a prominent cleric and member of Sadr's inner circle of advisers.
"Maliki ... wants to send a message to the (U.S.) occupiers: 'I can implement your requests' ... We tell you that you are committing a mistake," he said in a statement.
Another top Sadr aide made similar comments in a statement.
Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, on Saturday demanded the Sadr bloc take a clear stance against rogue elements within the movement's Mehdi Army militia that Washington blames for killing U.S. troops.
Maliki's comments came in the wake of fighting between the Mehdi Army and Iraqi security forces that has killed dozens of people in recent weeks in the relatively calm southern cities of Nassiriya, Diwaniya and Samawa.
The Sadr bloc pulled its six ministers out of Maliki's cabinet in April when the prime minister refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
It has also boycotted parliament since an attack on a revered Shi'ite mosque last month in the city of Samarra and most recently rejected a landmark draft oil law.
The youthful Sadr has huge appeal among Iraq's Shi'ite masses but since the start of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in February he has largely disappeared from public view.
Earlier this year, U.S. officials said Sadr was hiding in Iran, although his aides say he never left Iraq. Analysts have speculated he had returned to reassert his authority over his militia, which the U.S. military says has begun fragmenting into splinter groups.
Sadr led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
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Rift between Sadr bloc and Iraqi PM widens
08 Jul 2007 15:47:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
Al
BAGHDAD, July 8 (Reuters) - A powerful Shi'ite bloc lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday after he accused it of failing to take a clear stance on violence, signalling a deepening rift between Maliki and a former backer.
Followers from the movement of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose support propelled Maliki into the prime minister's office last year, also held street protests in Baghdad in the wake of the Iraqi leader's comments on Saturday.
"This government is at the edge of an abyss. It will collapse," said Ahmed al-Shaibany, a prominent cleric and member of Sadr's inner circle of advisers.
"Maliki ... wants to send a message to the (U.S.) occupiers: 'I can implement your requests' ... We tell you that you are committing a mistake," he said in a statement.
Another top Sadr aide made similar comments in a statement.
Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, on Saturday demanded the Sadr bloc take a clear stance against rogue elements within the movement's Mehdi Army militia that Washington blames for killing U.S. troops.
Maliki's comments came in the wake of fighting between the Mehdi Army and Iraqi security forces that has killed dozens of people in recent weeks in the relatively calm southern cities of Nassiriya, Diwaniya and Samawa.
The Sadr bloc pulled its six ministers out of Maliki's cabinet in April when the prime minister refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
It has also boycotted parliament since an attack on a revered Shi'ite mosque last month in the city of Samarra and most recently rejected a landmark draft oil law.
The youthful Sadr has huge appeal among Iraq's Shi'ite masses but since the start of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in February he has largely disappeared from public view.
Earlier this year, U.S. officials said Sadr was hiding in Iran, although his aides say he never left Iraq. Analysts have speculated he had returned to reassert his authority over his militia, which the U.S. military says has begun fragmenting into splinter groups.
Sadr led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
AlertNet news is provided by
Monday, April 23, 2007
Sadr raises the Stakes.
This is from counterpunch. So far Sadr has not tried to confron the US or Iraqi military forces directly. He does not control all of his avowed followers and some of them may still be operating against the surge. I doubt that the resignations of the cabinet ministers will weaken the government. As Sadr himself has said it will allow Maliki more flexibility.
Weekend Edition
April 21 / 22, 2007
7 Out of 10 Shia Agree: US Military Presence Makes Security Worse
Sadr Raises the Stakes
By PATRICK COCKBURN
A violent confrontation between America and the Sadrist movement, popular among the Shia majority, would mark a new stage in the four-year war in which the US has hitherto been fighting the minority Sunni community. Last week the nationalist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his ministers to leave the Iraqi government because of its refusal to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The departure of the six ministers will weaken the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who relied on the support of their movement for a majority in parliament. The Sadrists accused Mr Maliki of "ignoring the will of the people" over the issue of a timed American withdrawal.
Muqtada al-Sadr has been hiding for two months but in recent weeks has demanded an end to the occupation. He has organised peaceful rallies attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators in Najaf at which Sadr supporters waved Iraqi flags and chanted their opposition to the continuing US presence.
Menacingly for the US, Mr Sadr called on Iraqi police and soldiers, many of them his supporters, to oppose the occupation. His new anti-American campaign is in keeping with Iraqi opinion going by a recent poll by ABC, the BBC, ARD and USA Today. It showed that 78 per cent of Iraqis oppose the presence of US forces in Iraq. More than 7 out of 10 Shia--and almost all Sunni--say the US military presence makes security worse.
A significant change in Iraqi politics over the past four years has been the growing hostility of the Shia towards the US. Although the government of Mr Maliki is in effect a Shia-Kurdish coalition, 59 per cent of Iraqis think the US controls things in Iraq according to the poll. Many Shia see the US as covertly manipulating the real levers of power in order to exclude them. For instance the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, the main security service, under General Mohammed Shahwani, is wholly funded by the CIA at a reported cost of $3 bn since 2004.
The Sadrists are not likely to move into total opposition to Mr Maliki's government because Mr Sadr has sought to avoid direct military confrontation with the US since his Mehdi Army militia clashed with American forces in 2004. "The Prime Minister has to express the will of the Iraqi people," the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, Nasser al-Rubaie, said yesterday. "They went out in their millions asking for a timetable for withdrawal. We noticed the Prime Minister's response did not express the will of the people."
Meanwhile, the US administration has decided to continue to hold five Iranian officials captured in the Kurdish capital, Arbil, on January 11. US officials quoted by The Washington Post confirmed my story of April 3 that the US had originally targeted two senior Iranian security officers, Mohammed Jafari, the deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but failed to capture them.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq', a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.
Weekend Edition
April 21 / 22, 2007
7 Out of 10 Shia Agree: US Military Presence Makes Security Worse
Sadr Raises the Stakes
By PATRICK COCKBURN
A violent confrontation between America and the Sadrist movement, popular among the Shia majority, would mark a new stage in the four-year war in which the US has hitherto been fighting the minority Sunni community. Last week the nationalist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his ministers to leave the Iraqi government because of its refusal to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The departure of the six ministers will weaken the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who relied on the support of their movement for a majority in parliament. The Sadrists accused Mr Maliki of "ignoring the will of the people" over the issue of a timed American withdrawal.
Muqtada al-Sadr has been hiding for two months but in recent weeks has demanded an end to the occupation. He has organised peaceful rallies attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators in Najaf at which Sadr supporters waved Iraqi flags and chanted their opposition to the continuing US presence.
Menacingly for the US, Mr Sadr called on Iraqi police and soldiers, many of them his supporters, to oppose the occupation. His new anti-American campaign is in keeping with Iraqi opinion going by a recent poll by ABC, the BBC, ARD and USA Today. It showed that 78 per cent of Iraqis oppose the presence of US forces in Iraq. More than 7 out of 10 Shia--and almost all Sunni--say the US military presence makes security worse.
A significant change in Iraqi politics over the past four years has been the growing hostility of the Shia towards the US. Although the government of Mr Maliki is in effect a Shia-Kurdish coalition, 59 per cent of Iraqis think the US controls things in Iraq according to the poll. Many Shia see the US as covertly manipulating the real levers of power in order to exclude them. For instance the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, the main security service, under General Mohammed Shahwani, is wholly funded by the CIA at a reported cost of $3 bn since 2004.
The Sadrists are not likely to move into total opposition to Mr Maliki's government because Mr Sadr has sought to avoid direct military confrontation with the US since his Mehdi Army militia clashed with American forces in 2004. "The Prime Minister has to express the will of the Iraqi people," the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, Nasser al-Rubaie, said yesterday. "They went out in their millions asking for a timetable for withdrawal. We noticed the Prime Minister's response did not express the will of the people."
Meanwhile, the US administration has decided to continue to hold five Iranian officials captured in the Kurdish capital, Arbil, on January 11. US officials quoted by The Washington Post confirmed my story of April 3 that the US had originally targeted two senior Iranian security officers, Mohammed Jafari, the deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but failed to capture them.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq', a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Al Sadr calls for resistance to US occupation
There doesn't seem to be much new in his message. His rallies on the anniversary of the war obviously are attracting large crowds. The rallies seem more or less peaceful. Sadr himself is not risking arrest by appearing. He may or may not be in Iran. This report is from Der Spiegel.
Al-Sadr Calls for Resistance Against the US
Thousands of Iraqis have turned out to protest US troops on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has issued his fiercest anti-American statement in months.
Anti-American protests called by the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr filled a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad on Monday, as the government imposed a curfew in the capital to keep order on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The April 9 demonstrations marked the day in 2003 when US Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division took Baghdad. Thousands of demonstrators marched from Kufa to the holy city of Najaf, waving Iraqi flags and chanting, "No, no to America, yes, yes to Moqtada," with police lining the demonstration route. They weren't allowed to protest in Baghdad.
Photo Gallery: Iraqis Protest US Troops
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (7 Photos)
Al-Sadr -- who is in hiding -- had exhorted his followers over the weekend to attend the protests and end the recent fighting in the Shiite city of Diwaniya, where US forces began a mission on Friday to oust his Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr blamed the US for the continuing violence and said, in a statement distributed in Najaf on Sunday, "You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy ... God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them -- not against the sons of Iraq."
It wasn't an outright call to arms, but it was al-Sadr's most aggressive anti-American rhetoric since a security crackdown in Baghdad drove him underground almost two months ago.
The crackdown intensified on Monday. Vehicle traffic was banned in Baghdad starting at 5 a.m., but cars full of protesters flowed out of the capital city before the curfew to demonstrate elsewhere. The government on Sunday had cancelled the April 9 holiday, but quickly recinded the decree.
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"There will be protests marking the fourth anniversary," said Iraqi Army Brigadier Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the latest US-Iraqi security mission in Baghdad, to explain the vehicle curfew. "We don't want to give the terrorists a chance to use this opportunity."
Al-Sadr has officially been ordering members of his Mahdi Army militia to disarm ever since the crackdown started in Baghdad in mid-February. But his anti-American rhetoric hasn't slackened, and some of the violence has moved to Shiite towns in the Diyala province south of Baghdad, like Diwaniya. On Sunday a car bomb in another such town, Mahmudiya, killed 17 people and wounded two dozen while in Baghdad, the bodies of 17 people, some apparently tortured, were found across the city in the last 24 hours. The US military on Monday announced the deaths of 10 soldiers in Iraq over the weekend including six on Sunday.
The Iraqi government called last week for a broadening of the crackdown to other cities.
Meanwhile Pope Benedict XVI released an Easter message on Sunday lamenting violence in Africa and the Middle East and decrying the "continual slaughter" in Iraq.
Al-Sadr Calls for Resistance Against the US
Thousands of Iraqis have turned out to protest US troops on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, and Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has issued his fiercest anti-American statement in months.
Anti-American protests called by the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr filled a Shiite holy city south of Baghdad on Monday, as the government imposed a curfew in the capital to keep order on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The April 9 demonstrations marked the day in 2003 when US Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division took Baghdad. Thousands of demonstrators marched from Kufa to the holy city of Najaf, waving Iraqi flags and chanting, "No, no to America, yes, yes to Moqtada," with police lining the demonstration route. They weren't allowed to protest in Baghdad.
Photo Gallery: Iraqis Protest US Troops
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (7 Photos)
Al-Sadr -- who is in hiding -- had exhorted his followers over the weekend to attend the protests and end the recent fighting in the Shiite city of Diwaniya, where US forces began a mission on Friday to oust his Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr blamed the US for the continuing violence and said, in a statement distributed in Najaf on Sunday, "You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy ... God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them -- not against the sons of Iraq."
It wasn't an outright call to arms, but it was al-Sadr's most aggressive anti-American rhetoric since a security crackdown in Baghdad drove him underground almost two months ago.
The crackdown intensified on Monday. Vehicle traffic was banned in Baghdad starting at 5 a.m., but cars full of protesters flowed out of the capital city before the curfew to demonstrate elsewhere. The government on Sunday had cancelled the April 9 holiday, but quickly recinded the decree.
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"There will be protests marking the fourth anniversary," said Iraqi Army Brigadier Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the latest US-Iraqi security mission in Baghdad, to explain the vehicle curfew. "We don't want to give the terrorists a chance to use this opportunity."
Al-Sadr has officially been ordering members of his Mahdi Army militia to disarm ever since the crackdown started in Baghdad in mid-February. But his anti-American rhetoric hasn't slackened, and some of the violence has moved to Shiite towns in the Diyala province south of Baghdad, like Diwaniya. On Sunday a car bomb in another such town, Mahmudiya, killed 17 people and wounded two dozen while in Baghdad, the bodies of 17 people, some apparently tortured, were found across the city in the last 24 hours. The US military on Monday announced the deaths of 10 soldiers in Iraq over the weekend including six on Sunday.
The Iraqi government called last week for a broadening of the crackdown to other cities.
Meanwhile Pope Benedict XVI released an Easter message on Sunday lamenting violence in Africa and the Middle East and decrying the "continual slaughter" in Iraq.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Sadr urges followers to oppose US troops
Sadr actually seems to support the security surge. It is the presence of US troops in a jointly operated "station" within Sadr city that he seems to be objecting to. He would not oppose an Iraqi force apparently. However, Sadr has always seemed to me to be less a radical than a political opportunist out to further his own career and power. It is his constituency which is radical and poor and very much opposed to the occupation. It seems that he does not have that much control of his own followers and may indeed be happy to see some arrested. Whether he is in Iran or Iraq he does not seem to be exerting direct control over many of his so-called followers.
Iraq cleric slams occupiers, Shi'ite mayor shot By Claudia Parsons
Fri Mar 16, 12:38 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged his followers on Friday to oppose occupying troops, raising the pressure on U.S.-backed Iraqi forces conducting a security crackdown in Baghdad.
In a possible setback for the crackdown, the mayor of Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in the capital, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car on Thursday.
Sheikh Raheem al-Darruji has been a key figure in facilitating recent joint operations in Sadr City, long a no-go area for U.S. forces and a bastion of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to the fiercely anti-American Sadr.
A statement from Sadr that was read out at prayers in Sadr City on Friday repeated his longheld opposition to the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, and appeared to respond to recent statements by U.S. military officials who have said people in Sadr City were cooperating with them.
"I'm confident that you consider them (U.S. forces) your enemies," said the statement carrying Sadr's seal which was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf as well as being read out to thousands of worshippers in Sadr City.
"I call upon you all to raise your voices all together and shout with one voice 'No, No, America'," the statement said.
Sadr City was viewed as a test of the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government's will to deal as firmly with Shi'ite militias as it does with Sunni Arab insurgents. U.S. commanders say they have met little resistance since launching operations 10 days ago.
Sadr's statement denounced U.S. forces as occupiers but did not mention Iraqi security forces. Sadr's political movement has expressed its support for the Baghdad plan as long as operations are conducted by Iraqi forces.
PROTEST AT U.S. FORCES
A Mehdi Army official said thousands of people demonstrated after prayers on Friday to reject the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in Sadr City. Television pictures showed at least hundreds of people.
Major General Joseph Fil, commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, said on Thursday Sadr did appear to have instructed his followers to work with Iraqi security forces, if not with Americans. "I don't know that we have his support now," he said.
The chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell, said this week U.S. forces were keeping a close track on Sadr and they believed he was in Iran. His aides have insisted he is still in Iraq.
Just a few months ago, Washington called Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to security in Iraq.
The radical young cleric headed uprisings against U.S. forces twice in 2004, but his political movement is now an important party in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Thursday's attack on the mayor of Sadr City could complicate efforts to improve security there.
An Iraqi police source said Darruji was driving in a private car with a police colonel on Thursday in a district of Sadr City when gunmen in another car opened fire, killing the policeman and wounding the mayor.
The mayor's driver was also killed, a U.S. military spokesman said, but the mayor was in "good condition" on Friday.
"He has been helpful to the coalition and the efforts to establish the joint security station inside of Sadr City," the spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Khalid Farhan in Najaf and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad
Iraq cleric slams occupiers, Shi'ite mayor shot By Claudia Parsons
Fri Mar 16, 12:38 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged his followers on Friday to oppose occupying troops, raising the pressure on U.S.-backed Iraqi forces conducting a security crackdown in Baghdad.
In a possible setback for the crackdown, the mayor of Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in the capital, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car on Thursday.
Sheikh Raheem al-Darruji has been a key figure in facilitating recent joint operations in Sadr City, long a no-go area for U.S. forces and a bastion of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to the fiercely anti-American Sadr.
A statement from Sadr that was read out at prayers in Sadr City on Friday repeated his longheld opposition to the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, and appeared to respond to recent statements by U.S. military officials who have said people in Sadr City were cooperating with them.
"I'm confident that you consider them (U.S. forces) your enemies," said the statement carrying Sadr's seal which was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf as well as being read out to thousands of worshippers in Sadr City.
"I call upon you all to raise your voices all together and shout with one voice 'No, No, America'," the statement said.
Sadr City was viewed as a test of the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government's will to deal as firmly with Shi'ite militias as it does with Sunni Arab insurgents. U.S. commanders say they have met little resistance since launching operations 10 days ago.
Sadr's statement denounced U.S. forces as occupiers but did not mention Iraqi security forces. Sadr's political movement has expressed its support for the Baghdad plan as long as operations are conducted by Iraqi forces.
PROTEST AT U.S. FORCES
A Mehdi Army official said thousands of people demonstrated after prayers on Friday to reject the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in Sadr City. Television pictures showed at least hundreds of people.
Major General Joseph Fil, commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, said on Thursday Sadr did appear to have instructed his followers to work with Iraqi security forces, if not with Americans. "I don't know that we have his support now," he said.
The chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell, said this week U.S. forces were keeping a close track on Sadr and they believed he was in Iran. His aides have insisted he is still in Iraq.
Just a few months ago, Washington called Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to security in Iraq.
The radical young cleric headed uprisings against U.S. forces twice in 2004, but his political movement is now an important party in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Thursday's attack on the mayor of Sadr City could complicate efforts to improve security there.
An Iraqi police source said Darruji was driving in a private car with a police colonel on Thursday in a district of Sadr City when gunmen in another car opened fire, killing the policeman and wounding the mayor.
The mayor's driver was also killed, a U.S. military spokesman said, but the mayor was in "good condition" on Friday.
"He has been helpful to the coalition and the efforts to establish the joint security station inside of Sadr City," the spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Khalid Farhan in Najaf and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Maliki's cabinet shuffle and Al Sadr
This is exercerpted from Juan Cole's Website.
According to a commentator there are provisions to replace a member of parliament. The faction from which the member comes appoints a replacement. If this is true then al Maliki will not be able to push through the oil law simply by locking up Sadrists and others who oppose the law unless he can do that within the time frame in which the missing MPs must be replaced. In any event I expect that reaction to jailing MPs or even dismissing cabinet members may be such that Maliki's government will fall anyway.
Parliamentarians from the Sadr Bloc vowed that they would resist Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plans to dismiss 5 out of 6 cabinet ministers from their party. The Sadrists have 32 seats in the Iraqi legislature, and their support was key to the election of al-Maliki last spring.
KarbalaNews.net reports in Arabic that al-Maliki gave an interview in which he said that high judicial authorities are preparing indictments against members of parliament for involvement in militia and death squad activity. Maybe al-Maliki thinks he does not need the Sadrist MPs because so many of them will soon be in prison.
Indeed, the scale of the indictments against sitting Iraqi representatives and officials hinted at by al-Maliki suggests a judicial coup.
Given that Sunni and Sadrist MPs have been loudest in denouncing the new oil law, if large numbers of them were incarcerated, it would also make it easier for al-Maliki to get the legislation enacted.
There are no mechanisms for by-elections to the Iraqi parliament to my knowledge, so that the parliamentarians that are arrested will likely not be replaced until late 2009. The arrests could dramatically alter the relative proportion of representatives of various communities. No Kurds will be arrested, since their Peshmerga militia has been legalized, so their bloc will be strengthen
According to a commentator there are provisions to replace a member of parliament. The faction from which the member comes appoints a replacement. If this is true then al Maliki will not be able to push through the oil law simply by locking up Sadrists and others who oppose the law unless he can do that within the time frame in which the missing MPs must be replaced. In any event I expect that reaction to jailing MPs or even dismissing cabinet members may be such that Maliki's government will fall anyway.
Parliamentarians from the Sadr Bloc vowed that they would resist Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plans to dismiss 5 out of 6 cabinet ministers from their party. The Sadrists have 32 seats in the Iraqi legislature, and their support was key to the election of al-Maliki last spring.
KarbalaNews.net reports in Arabic that al-Maliki gave an interview in which he said that high judicial authorities are preparing indictments against members of parliament for involvement in militia and death squad activity. Maybe al-Maliki thinks he does not need the Sadrist MPs because so many of them will soon be in prison.
Indeed, the scale of the indictments against sitting Iraqi representatives and officials hinted at by al-Maliki suggests a judicial coup.
Given that Sunni and Sadrist MPs have been loudest in denouncing the new oil law, if large numbers of them were incarcerated, it would also make it easier for al-Maliki to get the legislation enacted.
There are no mechanisms for by-elections to the Iraqi parliament to my knowledge, so that the parliamentarians that are arrested will likely not be replaced until late 2009. The arrests could dramatically alter the relative proportion of representatives of various communities. No Kurds will be arrested, since their Peshmerga militia has been legalized, so their bloc will be strengthen
al-Sadr will not give up cabinet posts
al Maliki could very well destroy his government in reshuffling. If Sadr withdraws his support al Maliki's govt. itself could be replaced. No doubt the US and many opponents of Maliki in Iraq would not regard this as necessarily bad.
Sadr movement vows not to give up posts unless others in coalition do
The Associated PressPublished: March 5, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq: Followers of an anti-American Shiite cleric warned Monday they will not relinquish their Cabinet posts unless other members of the ruling coalition do the same, setting the stage for a major political battle as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki prepares to reshuffle his administration.
Al-Maliki told The Associated Press on Saturday that he would reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks. He did not say how many posts would be changed.
But an adviser to the prime minister said 10 ministers would be replaced. They include five of the six ministers loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
The Sunni bloc would lose two ministries and one deputy prime minister. The secular group led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi would give up two positions, the adviser said.
But the al-Sadr faction would take the biggest hit under the adviser's formula. Shiite ministers from other factions would remain in their jobs.
"We will not give up our share and any of our ministerial posts under any circumstances unless all other blocs are subjected to the same procedure," Saleh al-Ukaili, head of Sadrist faction in parliament, said.
Al-Ukaili said his group was especially keen to retain control of the Ministry of Health and if the others in the coalition didn't like the current management, "then we are ready to discuss another name with the prime Minster."
"But we are not ready to give up one of the six ministerial posts," he said.
Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats and commands the Mahdi Army militia, making him a major player in the Shiite bloc. His ties to al-Maliki have been long cited as the reason behind the government's reluctance to dismantle the militias, a major U.S. demand.
Under intense pressure from the U.S., al-Maliki convinced the young cleric to lower his militia's profile in Baghdad's streets, and a U.S.-Iraqi force entered his stronghold Sadr City on Sunday without resistance.
The prospect of losing his militia base and his foothold in government could prompt al-Sadr into reconsidering his tacit support for the Baghdad security operation, which began last month.
Sadr movement vows not to give up posts unless others in coalition do
The Associated PressPublished: March 5, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq: Followers of an anti-American Shiite cleric warned Monday they will not relinquish their Cabinet posts unless other members of the ruling coalition do the same, setting the stage for a major political battle as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki prepares to reshuffle his administration.
Al-Maliki told The Associated Press on Saturday that he would reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks. He did not say how many posts would be changed.
But an adviser to the prime minister said 10 ministers would be replaced. They include five of the six ministers loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
The Sunni bloc would lose two ministries and one deputy prime minister. The secular group led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi would give up two positions, the adviser said.
But the al-Sadr faction would take the biggest hit under the adviser's formula. Shiite ministers from other factions would remain in their jobs.
"We will not give up our share and any of our ministerial posts under any circumstances unless all other blocs are subjected to the same procedure," Saleh al-Ukaili, head of Sadrist faction in parliament, said.
Al-Ukaili said his group was especially keen to retain control of the Ministry of Health and if the others in the coalition didn't like the current management, "then we are ready to discuss another name with the prime Minster."
"But we are not ready to give up one of the six ministerial posts," he said.
Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats and commands the Mahdi Army militia, making him a major player in the Shiite bloc. His ties to al-Maliki have been long cited as the reason behind the government's reluctance to dismantle the militias, a major U.S. demand.
Under intense pressure from the U.S., al-Maliki convinced the young cleric to lower his militia's profile in Baghdad's streets, and a U.S.-Iraqi force entered his stronghold Sadr City on Sunday without resistance.
The prospect of losing his militia base and his foothold in government could prompt al-Sadr into reconsidering his tacit support for the Baghdad security operation, which began last month.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sadr still supports surge---sort of!
Sadr is not at all averse to cracking down on Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents but he wants Iraqi control and the US out. He is probably wise to stay in Iran for the duration of the surge since there is little doubt he would be arrested by the US or even killed if he were in Baghdad.
It is not surprising but rather misguided to claim that the surge is a success because there has been relatively less violence except for some spectacular suicide bombings. The classic tactic of guerrilla warfare is to lay low when faced by superior force.
Sadr still supports Baghdad crackdown-aides
26 Feb 2007 09:00:24 GMT
Source: Reuters
More BAGHDAD, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has not withdrawn his support from a U.S.-backed crackdown in Baghdad, his aides said on Monday.
Salih al-Ugeyli, a spokesman for Sadr's political movement, said Sunday's strongly worded statement from the Shi'ite cleric was meant to encourage Iraqi forces to act independently from the U.S. military in the capital.
In the statement read out to a large crowd in Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, the cleric said the Baghdad security plan would not work because U.S. forces were involved.
"The media misinterpreted the statement because we are still fully behind the plan. It was meant as advice for our security forces who are capable of achieving more without American help," Ugeyli said.
A senior politician from Sadr's political movement echoed Ugeyli's comments.
"We have not withdrawn our support for the security plan. All we did was ask Iraqis to take more of a lead and we repeated our demands for a withdrawal of the occupation," said Falah Hasan Shanshal.
Sadr, an anti-American cleric, made his criticism hours after a female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 40 in a student college.
The plan is regarded as a last attempt to halt all-out civil war in Iraq. Sadr led his Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia in two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
Mehdi Army militiamen have so far avoided a confrontation with U.S. forces sweeping the capital.
It is not surprising but rather misguided to claim that the surge is a success because there has been relatively less violence except for some spectacular suicide bombings. The classic tactic of guerrilla warfare is to lay low when faced by superior force.
Sadr still supports Baghdad crackdown-aides
26 Feb 2007 09:00:24 GMT
Source: Reuters
More BAGHDAD, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has not withdrawn his support from a U.S.-backed crackdown in Baghdad, his aides said on Monday.
Salih al-Ugeyli, a spokesman for Sadr's political movement, said Sunday's strongly worded statement from the Shi'ite cleric was meant to encourage Iraqi forces to act independently from the U.S. military in the capital.
In the statement read out to a large crowd in Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, the cleric said the Baghdad security plan would not work because U.S. forces were involved.
"The media misinterpreted the statement because we are still fully behind the plan. It was meant as advice for our security forces who are capable of achieving more without American help," Ugeyli said.
A senior politician from Sadr's political movement echoed Ugeyli's comments.
"We have not withdrawn our support for the security plan. All we did was ask Iraqis to take more of a lead and we repeated our demands for a withdrawal of the occupation," said Falah Hasan Shanshal.
Sadr, an anti-American cleric, made his criticism hours after a female suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed 40 in a student college.
The plan is regarded as a last attempt to halt all-out civil war in Iraq. Sadr led his Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia in two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
Mehdi Army militiamen have so far avoided a confrontation with U.S. forces sweeping the capital.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Security Surge begins in 3 areas of Baghdad
New York Times
It seems the that Sadr and his militias are just going to wait out the surge. Some renegade militias may perhaps ambush the security precincts that are to be set up in each area. Obviously most of the troops are US rather than Iraqi. I heard one report that Sadr was indeed in Iran but just "visiting" not escaping from the surge. However, he seems to have made no statements opposing the security sweep. Perhaps he hopes that it will clear out some of the SUnni insurgents and also renegeda militias that he cannot control. He will come back after the surge has subsided.
February 14, 2007
Troops Sweep 3 Shiite Areas in Baghdad Push
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 — Thousands of American troops in armored Stryker vehicles swarmed three mostly Shiite neighborhoods of northeastern Baghdad on Wednesday, encountering little resistance during what commanders described as the first major sweep of the new security plan for the capital.
The push into the Shaab, Bayda and Ur neighborhoods, on the northern edge of Sadr City — coming one day after the top Iraqi general asserted broad powers to search, detain and move residents from their homes — was the largest of several operations that signaled an escalation of American and Iraqi efforts to stop Baghdad’s bloody violence. And it was clearly an American-led assault: only 200 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were involved, commanders said, working alongside about 2,500 Americans.
The limited Iraqi participation underscored concerns about Iraqi government’s ability to provide the troops it promised and suggested that American soldiers would bear the security plan’s heaviest burdens despite declarations that it would be Iraqi-led.
Col. Steve Townsend, commander of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said the operation in northeast Baghdad had been pushed up a day because of a request from Iraq’s Shiite-led government. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki has endured blistering criticism for what some Iraqis have described as dangerous delays in setting the plan in motion, and on Wednesday he seemed determined to display a show of force, if not of progress.
“We’ve started a new phase today, the phase of building the state on the basis of two ideas,” he said, at a news conference in the southern city of Karbala. “The basis of reconciliation — to include all those who want to support the country — and the basis of striking hard at those who want to rebel.”
Without referring to specific operations, President Bush said Wednesday that the new plan was “beginning to take shape” and that the goal was “relative peace.” During a televised news conference at the White House, he asserted that the violence here would be far worse if he had not decided to add 17,500 American combat troops in and around Baghdad.
But the president warned against high expectations. “I say relative peace, because if it’s like zero car bombings,” he said, “it never will happen that way.”
Wednesday’s effort could be felt across the capital. Armored vehicles set up on the border of Sadr City and Ur. Jets thundered overhead for much of the day and night.
In the southeastern neighborhood of Dora, two airstrikes killed 15 suspected insurgents as they defended a building and tried to set roadside bombs, the American military said in a statement. To the northeast, in the Sunni Arab enclave of Adhamiya, American troops arrested a suspected Sunni insurgent leader and searched house to house for weapons, military officials said.
Traffic was also more snarled than usual throughout Baghdad as Iraqi forces narrowed wide boulevards and bridges into a traffic trickle, searching trunks and climbing aboard trucks to search payloads.
Bombs, mortar rounds and gunfights left at least eight people dead across the city — fewer than most days since the new security plan was announced a month ago.
For some Iraqis in Ur and other neighborhoods searched in recent days, the question was whether such gains could last. The current security plan is the third major attempt to bring peace to Baghdad, and in each case, initial gains were supplanted with a return to chaos.
“If the Americans keep doing it, they can make a difference,” said Ali Muhammad, 37, an ice cream shop owner who lives in Ur. “But they have to stay. Otherwise it will never work.”
Wednesday’s largest operation started at dawn in Shaab, Ur and Bayda with three battalions of American troops from the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, part of the Second Infantry Division, and a fourth battalion from second brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. In all about 2,500 American soldiers were involved, along with 200 members of the Iraqi security forces, Colonel Townsend said.
He said more Iraqis would eventually flow into the area. “You’ve got to remember that our surge plans are ahead of the Iraqis,” he said. “The Iraqis are still getting set.”
In Ur, as the sun rose, American troops clustered on corners in 19-ton armored Stryker vehicles. Soldiers poured out of the vehicles, knocking on doors and searching empty lots and two to three story brick homes. Gunmen from the Mahdi Army — Iraq’s largest Shiite militia, loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr — were believed to have made the area a base of operations. But residents said most of the fighters left several days ago.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, a spokesman for the American military, said at a briefing that Mr. Sadr had followed his militia leaders to Iran, reiterating claims made Tuesday, which have been disputed by the cleric’s aides.
The general also said military officials were scrutinizing a video from a Shiite militia Web site showing what appeared to be an United States Army sergeant, Ahmed Qusai al-Taie, who was kidnapped by masked gunmen in Baghdad last year.
General Caldwell also said that a Marine helicopter crash last week, which the American military had previously attributed to mechanical failure, had in fact been shot down, probably by “some sophisticated piece of weaponry.” Seven people died when the CH-46 Sea Knight came down west of Baghdad.
In Ur, Mr. Sadr’s whereabouts hardly mattered. Besides a few posters of his bearded visage plastered on walls across the neighborhood, signs of a violent, anti-American presence were few.
At about 7 a.m. local time, one company of troops from the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team reached a two-story warehouse in eastern Ur, near the border with Sadr City, and found three empty, rusted missile launchers that were more than 10 feet tall. The soldiers determined that they had not been used in a very long time. No missiles were found.
The only sign of the insurgents on Wednesday morning came later, when an explosion blew out a few tires on one squad’s vehicle.
“The information we had was that Moktada al-Sadr told all the JAM folks to lay low and not resist,” said Col. Townsend, using a common acronym for Jaish al-Mahdi, Arabic for the Mahdi Army. “And so far we’re not really seeing much resistance.”
Maj. Jesse Pearson, the operations officer for the First Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said the Mahdi Army seemed uninterested in fighting. Echoing the view of many Iraqi officials, he said: “They are taking the strategic view, which is smart. They can wait us out.”
Some Iraqis said that Shiite militias had been adequate protectors. They questioned whether the Iraqi forces had the skills or dedication to keep families safe.
The concerns even appeared among guards on the government payroll. Soon after discovering the missile launchers, Major Pearson and his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, met with a handful of Iraqi soldiers with the Facilities Protection Service, who said they were worried about what would happen when the Americans left and Iraqis took over.
“Before, the Mahdi Army would check each vehicle that came in here,” said Askal Farhi, one of the guards. “Now the Iraqi police are not really checking any vehicles, even though it’s better to check each vehicle for good security.”
Colonel Smiley asked the officers for their telephone numbers so they could stay in contact and work together to keep the neighborhood safe. But they refused. “We don’t want to look like we’re involved because we don’t want to be accused of being spies,” said Majid Faras, another guard.
The American officers said they were familiar with the problem; they said Iraqis who worked with them were often threatened.
This was one of the many challenges that the American military faces as it tries to attract the critical mass of support that is necessary for stability and safety.
The goal in Ur and the other areas has been laid out for weeks: flush out the militias, confiscate weapons, then set up small security precincts in the heart of the neighborhood where American soldiers and Iraqi security forces can live and work together.
At least six of these so-called joint security sites have already been established in the mostly Sunni areas of western Baghdad. They are widely considered the most visible amendment to previous security plans because they enmesh American troops with Iraqi forces and residents in ways not seen before in Baghdad.
But for the people of Ur, it was still not clear whether the new neighborhood bases would be enough to distinguish the current plan from past operations that failed to staunch the city’s ruthless violence.
Late Wednesday morning, Colonel Smiley met with a Shiite former Iraqi Army officer who said he was worried about the loyalties of the Iraqi security forces. As an American helicopter gunship thundered overhead, the former military officer said that many of the Iraqi policemen officers were criminals.
“You really don’t know what’s inside them,” he said.
At the border of Shaab and Ur, American troops encountered a warmer reception. And some residents in both areas seemed hopeful. Mustafa Jasim, 27, a Sunni Arab, said that the idea of bases in the neighborhood convinced him that the Americans would not leave immediately.
“With them here, now I can feel safe,” he said. “I’m sure the plan will make things better.”
American officers and soldiers described the Iraqi security forces, or I.S.F., as eager, even brave. But they acknowledged that full competence would be harder for them to achieve.
“The challenge we have is getting the I.S.F. to the point that when we de-surge, we can get the I.S.F. to where they can do the job on their own,” Colonel Smiley said.
He said the plan would take time to show results. General Caldwell, at the briefing, also called for patience, as did President Bush.
It was not clear how long they were willing to wait.
Staff Sgt. Kenley Beazer, 35, said American troops might be simply postponing an inevitable return to violence.
“As far taking over the whole city by themselves, it will never happen,” he said. “They rely too much on U.S. forces. As soon as we pull out, I give it six months, then it goes back to as bad as it was before.”
Reporting was contributed by Qais Mizher, Ali Adeeb, Ahmad Fadam, Khalid Al-Ansary and James Glanz.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
It seems the that Sadr and his militias are just going to wait out the surge. Some renegade militias may perhaps ambush the security precincts that are to be set up in each area. Obviously most of the troops are US rather than Iraqi. I heard one report that Sadr was indeed in Iran but just "visiting" not escaping from the surge. However, he seems to have made no statements opposing the security sweep. Perhaps he hopes that it will clear out some of the SUnni insurgents and also renegeda militias that he cannot control. He will come back after the surge has subsided.
February 14, 2007
Troops Sweep 3 Shiite Areas in Baghdad Push
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 — Thousands of American troops in armored Stryker vehicles swarmed three mostly Shiite neighborhoods of northeastern Baghdad on Wednesday, encountering little resistance during what commanders described as the first major sweep of the new security plan for the capital.
The push into the Shaab, Bayda and Ur neighborhoods, on the northern edge of Sadr City — coming one day after the top Iraqi general asserted broad powers to search, detain and move residents from their homes — was the largest of several operations that signaled an escalation of American and Iraqi efforts to stop Baghdad’s bloody violence. And it was clearly an American-led assault: only 200 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were involved, commanders said, working alongside about 2,500 Americans.
The limited Iraqi participation underscored concerns about Iraqi government’s ability to provide the troops it promised and suggested that American soldiers would bear the security plan’s heaviest burdens despite declarations that it would be Iraqi-led.
Col. Steve Townsend, commander of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said the operation in northeast Baghdad had been pushed up a day because of a request from Iraq’s Shiite-led government. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki has endured blistering criticism for what some Iraqis have described as dangerous delays in setting the plan in motion, and on Wednesday he seemed determined to display a show of force, if not of progress.
“We’ve started a new phase today, the phase of building the state on the basis of two ideas,” he said, at a news conference in the southern city of Karbala. “The basis of reconciliation — to include all those who want to support the country — and the basis of striking hard at those who want to rebel.”
Without referring to specific operations, President Bush said Wednesday that the new plan was “beginning to take shape” and that the goal was “relative peace.” During a televised news conference at the White House, he asserted that the violence here would be far worse if he had not decided to add 17,500 American combat troops in and around Baghdad.
But the president warned against high expectations. “I say relative peace, because if it’s like zero car bombings,” he said, “it never will happen that way.”
Wednesday’s effort could be felt across the capital. Armored vehicles set up on the border of Sadr City and Ur. Jets thundered overhead for much of the day and night.
In the southeastern neighborhood of Dora, two airstrikes killed 15 suspected insurgents as they defended a building and tried to set roadside bombs, the American military said in a statement. To the northeast, in the Sunni Arab enclave of Adhamiya, American troops arrested a suspected Sunni insurgent leader and searched house to house for weapons, military officials said.
Traffic was also more snarled than usual throughout Baghdad as Iraqi forces narrowed wide boulevards and bridges into a traffic trickle, searching trunks and climbing aboard trucks to search payloads.
Bombs, mortar rounds and gunfights left at least eight people dead across the city — fewer than most days since the new security plan was announced a month ago.
For some Iraqis in Ur and other neighborhoods searched in recent days, the question was whether such gains could last. The current security plan is the third major attempt to bring peace to Baghdad, and in each case, initial gains were supplanted with a return to chaos.
“If the Americans keep doing it, they can make a difference,” said Ali Muhammad, 37, an ice cream shop owner who lives in Ur. “But they have to stay. Otherwise it will never work.”
Wednesday’s largest operation started at dawn in Shaab, Ur and Bayda with three battalions of American troops from the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, part of the Second Infantry Division, and a fourth battalion from second brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. In all about 2,500 American soldiers were involved, along with 200 members of the Iraqi security forces, Colonel Townsend said.
He said more Iraqis would eventually flow into the area. “You’ve got to remember that our surge plans are ahead of the Iraqis,” he said. “The Iraqis are still getting set.”
In Ur, as the sun rose, American troops clustered on corners in 19-ton armored Stryker vehicles. Soldiers poured out of the vehicles, knocking on doors and searching empty lots and two to three story brick homes. Gunmen from the Mahdi Army — Iraq’s largest Shiite militia, loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr — were believed to have made the area a base of operations. But residents said most of the fighters left several days ago.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, a spokesman for the American military, said at a briefing that Mr. Sadr had followed his militia leaders to Iran, reiterating claims made Tuesday, which have been disputed by the cleric’s aides.
The general also said military officials were scrutinizing a video from a Shiite militia Web site showing what appeared to be an United States Army sergeant, Ahmed Qusai al-Taie, who was kidnapped by masked gunmen in Baghdad last year.
General Caldwell also said that a Marine helicopter crash last week, which the American military had previously attributed to mechanical failure, had in fact been shot down, probably by “some sophisticated piece of weaponry.” Seven people died when the CH-46 Sea Knight came down west of Baghdad.
In Ur, Mr. Sadr’s whereabouts hardly mattered. Besides a few posters of his bearded visage plastered on walls across the neighborhood, signs of a violent, anti-American presence were few.
At about 7 a.m. local time, one company of troops from the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team reached a two-story warehouse in eastern Ur, near the border with Sadr City, and found three empty, rusted missile launchers that were more than 10 feet tall. The soldiers determined that they had not been used in a very long time. No missiles were found.
The only sign of the insurgents on Wednesday morning came later, when an explosion blew out a few tires on one squad’s vehicle.
“The information we had was that Moktada al-Sadr told all the JAM folks to lay low and not resist,” said Col. Townsend, using a common acronym for Jaish al-Mahdi, Arabic for the Mahdi Army. “And so far we’re not really seeing much resistance.”
Maj. Jesse Pearson, the operations officer for the First Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said the Mahdi Army seemed uninterested in fighting. Echoing the view of many Iraqi officials, he said: “They are taking the strategic view, which is smart. They can wait us out.”
Some Iraqis said that Shiite militias had been adequate protectors. They questioned whether the Iraqi forces had the skills or dedication to keep families safe.
The concerns even appeared among guards on the government payroll. Soon after discovering the missile launchers, Major Pearson and his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, met with a handful of Iraqi soldiers with the Facilities Protection Service, who said they were worried about what would happen when the Americans left and Iraqis took over.
“Before, the Mahdi Army would check each vehicle that came in here,” said Askal Farhi, one of the guards. “Now the Iraqi police are not really checking any vehicles, even though it’s better to check each vehicle for good security.”
Colonel Smiley asked the officers for their telephone numbers so they could stay in contact and work together to keep the neighborhood safe. But they refused. “We don’t want to look like we’re involved because we don’t want to be accused of being spies,” said Majid Faras, another guard.
The American officers said they were familiar with the problem; they said Iraqis who worked with them were often threatened.
This was one of the many challenges that the American military faces as it tries to attract the critical mass of support that is necessary for stability and safety.
The goal in Ur and the other areas has been laid out for weeks: flush out the militias, confiscate weapons, then set up small security precincts in the heart of the neighborhood where American soldiers and Iraqi security forces can live and work together.
At least six of these so-called joint security sites have already been established in the mostly Sunni areas of western Baghdad. They are widely considered the most visible amendment to previous security plans because they enmesh American troops with Iraqi forces and residents in ways not seen before in Baghdad.
But for the people of Ur, it was still not clear whether the new neighborhood bases would be enough to distinguish the current plan from past operations that failed to staunch the city’s ruthless violence.
Late Wednesday morning, Colonel Smiley met with a Shiite former Iraqi Army officer who said he was worried about the loyalties of the Iraqi security forces. As an American helicopter gunship thundered overhead, the former military officer said that many of the Iraqi policemen officers were criminals.
“You really don’t know what’s inside them,” he said.
At the border of Shaab and Ur, American troops encountered a warmer reception. And some residents in both areas seemed hopeful. Mustafa Jasim, 27, a Sunni Arab, said that the idea of bases in the neighborhood convinced him that the Americans would not leave immediately.
“With them here, now I can feel safe,” he said. “I’m sure the plan will make things better.”
American officers and soldiers described the Iraqi security forces, or I.S.F., as eager, even brave. But they acknowledged that full competence would be harder for them to achieve.
“The challenge we have is getting the I.S.F. to the point that when we de-surge, we can get the I.S.F. to where they can do the job on their own,” Colonel Smiley said.
He said the plan would take time to show results. General Caldwell, at the briefing, also called for patience, as did President Bush.
It was not clear how long they were willing to wait.
Staff Sgt. Kenley Beazer, 35, said American troops might be simply postponing an inevitable return to violence.
“As far taking over the whole city by themselves, it will never happen,” he said. “They rely too much on U.S. forces. As soon as we pull out, I give it six months, then it goes back to as bad as it was before.”
Reporting was contributed by Qais Mizher, Ali Adeeb, Ahmad Fadam, Khalid Al-Ansary and James Glanz.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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