Saturday, June 7, 2008
Iraqis condemn US defence pact plan
Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, denouncing a proposed deal that would keep US troops in Iraq beyond 2008.
Protesters set fire to a US flag and to an effigy of George Bush, the US president, following Friday prayers.
The protests followed a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader, to reject a US-proposed "security alliance" that is reported would enable US troops to permanently occupy bases in Iraq.
Banners at the protest read: "The agreement with the Americans is an act of war against the Iraqi people."
Sattah al-Batat, who led Friday's prayers, told worshippers the agreement "would give full authority to the Americans as well as the right to do whatever they want".
"As long as Moqtada Sadr rejects the agreement, it will not be signed" by the government, Batat told worshippers.
Bush and Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, have agreed in principle in November to sign the Status of Forces Agreement by the end of July. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Iraqi PM begins talks in Tehran
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has arrived in Iran for talks aimed at improving relations between the two neighbouring countries.
He is expected to raise allegations of Iranian support for violent Shia militias in Iraq.
Also on the agenda are the ongoing US-Iraqi talks over the two countries' future, long-term relationship.
Mr Maliki, on his third visit since taking office, was met in Tehran by Iranian Vice-President Parviz Davoudi.
"The prime minister's visit to Iran is considered a step in a series of visits... and to form a strategy committee to develop the relationship between the two nations," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP news agency.
Government sources say Iraqi security officials with the delegation will be showing the Iranians evidence of their alleged support for the militias, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad reports. (BBC)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army
Seizures in Iraq reveal militia's arsenal
Iraqi troops sweeping through the Baghdad stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have found large quantities of weapons, including helicopter missiles and an anti-aircraft gun, the U.S military said on Saturday.
Some 10,000 Iraqi government troops entered the sprawling slum of Sadr City unopposed on May 20 under a truce between Sadr's supporters and ruling Shi'ite political parties that ended weeks of fighting in which hundreds were killed.
A U.S. military statement itemizing the weapons seized in the last three weeks gave the first real glimpse of the formidable arsenal that Sadr's feared Mehdi Army militia has been building up.
The statement said government forces had seized 100 caches of weapons, including 295 mortar rounds, 367 AK-47s, 109 anti-tank mines, 39 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, an anti-aircraft gun, six helicopter rockets, sniper rifles, improvised explosive devices, 123 grenades and artillery shells.
Sadr City, a bastion of Sadr's Mehdi Army, had been off-limits to U.S. and Iraqi forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (Reuters)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Friday, June 6, 2008
2 Shiite extremists surrender in Iraq
Two Shiite militia leaders surrendered to American soldiers Friday, while tens of thousands of supporters of hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr streamed out of mosques to protest against an agreement which could keep U.S. troops here for years.
The arrests and demonstrations occurred on the eve of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's trip to Shiite-dominated Iran, his second visit there in a year.
U.S. officials allege that Iran is arming and training Shiite militiamen and encouraging a public campaign in Iraq against the proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which the Iranians oppose.
One of those who surrendered early Friday allegedly ordered attacks on U.S. troops, directed the kidnapping of Iraqis and helped smuggle Iranian weapons into Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement.
The other tried to escape by wading through an irrigation canal before turning himself over to U.S. soldiers. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
POLITICS-US: How Cheney Outfoxed His Foes on Iran and EFPs
For many months, the propaganda line that explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that could penetrate U.S. armoured vehicles were coming straight from Iran has been embraced publicly by the entire George W. Bush administration. But when that argument was proposed internally by military officials in January 2007, it was attacked by key administration officials as unsupported by the facts.
Vice President Dick Cheney was able to get around those objections and get his Iranian EFP line accepted only because of arrangements he and Bush made with Gen. David Petraeus before he took command of U.S. forces in Iraq.
The initial draft of the proposed military briefing on the issue of EFPs, which asserted flatly that EFPs were being manufactured and smuggled to Iraqi Shiite groups directly by the Iranian regime, was met with unanimous objection from the State Department, Defence Department and National Security Council staff, as administration officials themselves stated publicly.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley tried to push back against Cheney's proposed line because they recognised it as an effort to go well beyond the compromise policy toward Iran that had been worked out in December and early January. The compromise policy had been to focus on networks working on procuring EFPs within Iraq and not to target Iran as directly responsible. (IPS)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sadrists want referendum on US-Iraq pact
Loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi government Saturday to hold a public referendum on a long-term security deal with the United States.
Widespread opposition to the deal has raised doubts that negotiators can meet a July target to finalize a pact to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said an American Marine died Friday in a non-combat related incident in Iraq, pushing the number of Americans killed this month to 21 as May draws to a close.
While the number is not final, it would be the lowest monthly death toll since February 2004, when 20 troops died, according to an Associated Press tally based on military figures.
The Iraqi monthly toll also was down, with 516 violent deaths reported to the AP by police and other officials, the lowest since 375 were killed in December 2005.
Senior Sadrists, including lawmakers Falah Hassan Shanshal and Maha Adel al-Douri, met in the cleric's Sadr City office in Baghdad and issued a statement calling on the Iraqi government to stop negotiations with the U.S. and to hold a public referendum on the issue. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Shiites Across Iraq Protest U.S. Presence
Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protested Friday in Shiite enclaves across Iraq against plans for a long-term security pact that would allow for an extended U.S. military presence in the country.
"No, no to America. No, no to the occupation," demonstrators waving Iraqi flags and banners chanted after afternoon prayers in Sadr's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City. "Yes, yes, Moqtada. Long live al-Sadr."
Some protesters carried pictures of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dressed as former president Saddam Hussein. One group burned an effigy of Maliki, then danced and stomped on it, as Iraqi government soldiers kept their distance.
The protests highlighted Sadr's still-formidable power and popularity among poor Shiites, even as the Shiite-led Iraqi government, backed by U.S. and British forces, has waged a campaign in recent months to weaken his movement and undermine his leadership credentials. (Washington Post)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Militant cleric urges protests on US-Iraq deal
Militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called Tuesday for followers to hold weekly protests against a U.S.-Iraqi security deal under negotiation that could lead to a long-term American troop presence.
The outcry by al-Sadr could sharply heighten tensions over the proposed pact, which is supposed to be finished by July to replace the current U.N. mandate overseeing U.S.-led troops in Iraq.
Al-Sadr - whose powerful Mahdi Army militia has often battled U.S. and Iraqi forces - is one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. presence in Iraq, but many Iraqis have expressed worries over any final deal that involves permanent American bases.
Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, did not give specific guidance on the planned demonstrations in a statement issued by top Shiite religious officials. Any major marches, however, could put added strain on a tenuous truce between the Mahdi Army and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after weeks of battles that began in late March.
In northern Iraq, meanwhile, a car bomb exploded near a popular market in Tal Afar, killing four civilians and wounding 46 others, said the city's mayor, Maj. Gen. Najim Abdullah.(AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Sadr Pursues Image to Match His Power
When the revered head of Iraq's largest Shiite opposition group was assassinated in 1999, the mantle of leadership passed to an unexpected heir: Moqtada al-Sadr, then a 25-year-old video game aficionado who oversaw the movement's security forces.
Sadr, now 34, has since emerged as an ardent nationalist who commands the support of hundreds of thousands of devotees and the scorn of those who see him as a thuggish militia leader of limited intellect. He has lately sought to reposition himself as a more mainstream figure, even in the face of increasing pressure from Iraq's Shiite-led government.
His decision last week to allow the Iraqi army to enter the capital's Sadr City district, his base of power, was the latest in a series of calming edicts that began last summer. In August 2007, he ordered his militia, which had been responsible for some of the most horrific sectarian violence in the country, to lay down its weapons. The freeze prompted senior U.S. military officials to begin praising the young cleric, despite his steady opposition to the American presence in Iraq. (Washington Post)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Hezbollah 'to back Iraq resistance'
Hassan Nasrallah, 'the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has said that his organisation "is siding with the resistance in Iraq" in a speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
"The Iraqis, Shia and Sunni, who took part in the political process wanted to give it a chance," he said in his address on Monday.
"But now that the real American goal in Iraq has been exposed the Iraqi government is put to a test."
It is the first time Nasrallah has issued a challenge to the Iraqi government to take a stand against the US military presence in Iraq.
"The Americans allowed the elections and the formation of parliament and a government so that they get an Iraqi legitimisation of the occupation," he said, referring to a reported Iraqi-American agreement that would allow the US to have a permanent presence in Iraq.
The speech by Nasrallah, aired over a video link to supporters, was part of celebrations to mark eight years since Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Hezbollah, Iraq, Mehdi Army
Monday, May 26, 2008
Amid Calm in Sadr City, Officials and Cleric’s Backers Swap Charges of Weakness
As some semblance of normal life began to return to the Sadr City area on Sunday, the Iraqi government and followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr accused each other of being weak. The verbal sniping occurred despite a cease-fire that had finally brought calm to one of Baghdad’s most volatile areas.
Mr. Sadr’s followers asserted that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki was not fully in control of his own military. But a top Iraqi military spokesman dismissed their claims, saying that Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, had been beaten back in all its major strongholds.
The salvos came as American military officials said the number of overall attacks throughout Iraq had fallen to its lowest weekly level since March 2004. Because some previous declines proved to be short-lived, American officials were cautious, conceding that Sunni Arab insurgents remained a very lethal threat.
The decline in attacks came after a truce ended two months of violence in Sadr City, a troubled Shiite district in Baghdad, and after operations in two other major cities, Basra in the south and Mosul in the north. (NY Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Sunday, May 25, 2008
ANALYSIS: Iraq PM rides high on successes
After two years in office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has managed only in the past two months to stamp a semblance of authority in this unwieldy nation with bold crackdowns on Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents in Baghdad, Basra and the north.
The progress has brought the Shiite prime minister's political rehabilitation, quieting critics at home who have long seen him as ineffective, indifferent to corruption or biased toward Shiite interests.
It also has won him praise from American officials and the military, only months after some in the United States were calling for him to be replaced for failing to achieve political benchmarks. His current political buoyancy also comes in no small part from an overall drop of violence - the U.S. military said that last week it recorded the lowest number of attacks since April 2004.
But al-Maliki is not out of the woods yet. Security gains made in the crackdowns he has personally overseen remain fragile and could quickly unravel, leaving him with little to show for his efforts and sparking new instability. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Iraqi Army breaks truce - Sadrists
The movement of hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday accused the Iraqi military of violating a truce, but said his Mehdi Army militia would continue to honor the deal, which halted weeks of bloodshed. The guns were silent in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where the Iraqi Army has now taken control in line with the May 10 agreement that sought to end seven weeks of street battles between the militia and US troops.
The Sadrist official sent to Sadr City to supervise the implementation of the cease-fire, Mohannad al-Gharawi, accused the Iraqi Army of harassing the local population in violation of the deal.
"The Sadrists are complying with the terms of the agreement and the instructions of ... Muqtada al-Sadr, but we have to inform the public about abuses committed by some army units against the people of Sadr City," Gharawi said during weekly Friday prayers in the Shiite stronghold. "Some units, particularly within the 11th Brigade, engaged in abuses against civilians. We warned their leaders, who denied it."
Hundreds of people were killed and many more were wounded during weeks of street fighting. "We condemn these atrocities and ask the population to submit their complaints to an independent parliamentary commission," Gharawi added. (AFP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Friday, May 23, 2008
Iraqi troops disperse Sadr supporters during prayer
Iraqi soldiers opened fire to disperse supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who were gathering for prayers in Basra on Friday, jeopardizing a fragile peace in the southern city.
Police said Iraqi troops fired in the air to disperse hundreds of worshippers, whom they said had no right to gather in a square in northern Basra, wounding six.
But Sadr supporters accused the Iraqi armed forces of attacking the worshippers and of indiscriminately opening fire on them. They said one person was killed and five wounded.
Basra was the scene of fierce fighting in March, when Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. A fragile peace rules now in the city.
"As a result and to avoid more bloodshed, we have ordered worshippers to cancel Friday prayers," said Hussein Abdul Wahid, an official at Sadr's office in Basra.
The police said the worshippers had no right to meet in the square, but Sadr supporters said the mosques in the area were too small and they had held prayers in the same square for the last two Fridays without incident. (Reuters)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Iraqi troops test truce in cleric stronghold
Iraqi troops set up checkpoints and intensified patrols in strategic streets they had taken over in the Baghdad bastion of Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday, testing a truce with the Shi'ite cleric's Mehdi Army militia.
Some 10,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by tanks and U.S. attack helicopters, have been pushing deep into Sadr City since launching an operation on Tuesday to assert government authority on an area until now outside its control.
A truce 10 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended weeks of fighting pitting U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Mehdi Army that killed hundreds of people in one of Baghdad's poorest districts.
Under the truce, the Mehdi Army fighters agreed to lay down their weapons and for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to restore its control over the slum.
"The Iraqi army came. Our relations with them are good. There is an understanding between us," said Salman al-Furaiji, the head of Sadr's office in Sadr City, adding that Iraqi soldiers had even held prayers alongside Mehdi Army fighters. (Reuters)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Iraqi troops pour into Sadr City
Iraqi troops poured into the Baghdad Shiite bastion of Sadr City on Tuesday for the first time in eight weeks, without resistance from militias who have fought deadly street battles with US forces.
Large numbers of heavily armed soldiers fanned out in Sadr City for the first time since heavy fighting broke out between loyalists of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and American security forces in late March.
Security officials said they launched "Operation Peace" at dawn to clear the area where mines had been planted by Shiite militiamen in the teeming slum district of northeastern Baghdad.
The Iraqi troop action in Sadr City is in line with a truce deal reached on May 10 between the government and Sadr's movement.
"Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers are deployed in different sectors of the city," an officer leading a unit of armoured vehicles told AFP. He said troops had already removed several mines from the city.
"The citizens are cooperating with the Iraqi forces, they welcomed our presence. There were no attacks that targeted the Iraqi military. The situation is peaceful."
An AFP reporter in Sadr City said residents were welcoming the soldiers who began spreading out in to the sprawling district of two million people while American soldiers remain on guard outside. (AFP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Thursday, May 15, 2008
War Over Wall Persists in Sadr City Despite Truce
An Iraqi soldier was watching over the concrete wall on Monday when a .50-caliber round ripped into his head.
Iraqi soldiers removed an explosive device on Monday that Shiite militiamen had hidden in a generator room in Sadr City.
Soon after the attack was reported on the tactical radio, two American military advisers were on their way to the scene, laser range finder in hand, to call in a Hellfire missile strike on a sniper position on the far side of a desolate no man’s land.
This is the war over the wall. It is a daily battle of attrition waged over the large concrete barrier that the Americans have been building across Sadr City in the hope of establishing a safe zone in the southern tier of the Shiite enclave.
The formal truce that was announced in the Green Zone with great fanfare on Monday has meant nothing here. Shiite militias have been trying to blast gaps in the wall, firing at the American troops who are completing it and maneuvering to pick off the Iraqi soldiers who have been charged with keeping an eye on the partition.
American forces have answered with tank rounds, helicopter rocket strikes and even satellite-guided bombs to try to silence the militia fire. On some stretches, the urban landscape has been transformed as the Americans have leveled buildings militia fighters have used as perches to mount their attacks. (NY Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
US/IRAQ: Tangled Web of Allegiances Leads Back to Tehran
If politics makes strange bedfellows, then the relationship between Iran, the United States and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is the strangest ménage à trois in international relations today.
Violent Shia-on-Shia hostilities officially came to an end this week when a formal ceasefire was declared between government forces of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, but sporadic fighting still continues. And questions remain about the role that the U.S. is playing.
In testimony before Congress a month ago, Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, and the U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker characterised the conflict in Iraq as a "proxy war" to stem Iranian influence.
Declarations by both the U.S. and al-Maliki's government about Iranian sponsorship of Sadrist activities are often used to paint Iran as a destabilising force in Iraq -- the meddling neighbour encouraging unrest to boost its own influence. U.S.-backed Iraqi government excursions against Sadr are defended by citing unsubstantiated evidence of Iranian agents' influence.
But this perspective has yet to be explained in terms of one of Iran's closest allies in Iraq, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), who, as part of al-Maliki's ruling coalition, also happen to be one of the U.S.'s closest partners. (IPS)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Calm returns to Baghdad's Sadr City as cease-fire begins to take hold after deadly clashes
A shaky cease-fire appeared to take hold Tuesday in Baghdad's Sadr City, after a cleric who brokered the deal for Shiite fighters said they would honor it even after clashes left at least 11 dead and 19 wounded.
The pact was intended to stop seven weeks of fighting between U.S.-supported Iraqi troops and Shiite extremists who have fired more than 1,000 mortars and rockets into the Green Zone, home to the government and Western embassies. But the cease-fire did not start well, with clashes late Monday and early Tuesday.
Iraqi medics reported 11 killed and 19 wounded. There were women and children among the wounded, said hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The U.S. military said Tuesday it could confirm the deaths of six militants.
In unrelated violence in northern Iraq, a roadside bombing killed five Iraqi soldiers Tuesday in Mosul, police said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Iraqi troops and U.S. soldiers have launched an operation against Sunni extremists there. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Shiite bloc says Sadr City cease-fire signed with Sadrists in effort to stop fighting
Representatives of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire Monday in an effort to end seven weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City slum.
It was unclear if the agreement would be respected by all the extremists who have been fighting in Sadr City. Al-Sadr is thought to have influence over some of the militants, but not all of them. Many of those fighting Iraqi and U.S. forces are thought to have splintered away from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
The U.S. military has repeatedly said its clashes are with rogue elements of al-Sadr's militia and that the majority of the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army did not openly participate in the fighting, adhering to a general cease-fire ordered last August by al-Sadr.
The fighting was concentrated mostly in the southern part of the Shiite slum that is home to about 2.5 million people, and Iraqi officials have reported that hundreds of people have died in the fighting. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Signs of normalcy in Iraq's Sadr City amid cease-fire
Militants were withdrawing from the streets and shops were reopening in Baghdad's Sadr City on the first day of a cease-fire between Shiite extremists and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces following two months of intense clashes.
Authorities reported no violence Sunday.
"Today, people are very happy and very optimistic," said Sadiq Jaafar, a 30-year-old father. "Last night for the first time in more than 40 days we were able to sleep without being woken up by explosions or gunfire."
U.S. military officials said at a news conference Sunday that the Iraqi government was still working out details of the truce with elements of the Sadrist movement of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"It is important to emphasize that it is an ongoing dialogue process," said U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll. "It is premature to say there is an agreed to truce."
The U.S. military has repeatedly emphasized that the clashes are being carried out by rogue elements and groups that have splintered from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Cleric spokesman: Cease-fire in Baghdad's Sadr City
Shiite militants agreed on a ceasefire in Baghdad's embattled neighborhood of Sadr City, an aide to a high level cleric said Saturday, holding out hope that weeks of clashes in the capital could be at an end.
In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi army commander announced the start of a long anticipated offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq's last urban stronghold.
Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, an aide to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the cease-fire will go into effect Sunday.
The cease-fire may not necessarily end seven-week-old clashes in Sadr City, the stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The U.S. military has blamed clashes on groups who broke away from the main organization. It remained unclear who will abide by the cease-fire deal.
It is not believed that the bulk of the 60,000-string Mahdi Army has participated in the clashes, but mostly just splinter groups that have refused to honor a general cease-fire ordered by al-Sadr last August. Al-Sadr has directed his supporters to only fight when attacked.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military on the reported deal. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh refused repeated requests for comment. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Sadr aide criticises Iraq's Sistani
An aide to Muqtada al-Sadr has lashed out at Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, for keeping silent over clashes that have killed hundreds in Baghdad.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded in fighting in the Sadr City district of the capital on Friday, US and Iraqi officials said.
The area is home to some of the poorest Shia in Iraq, and forms the bedrock of support for al-Sadr and his al-Mahdi Army militia.
US forces have killed 25 fighters in two days of clashes in the area.
Hospitals in Sadr City said they had received four bodies and treated 51 wounded by Friday morning, but gave no further casualty figures after that. Children were among the wounded. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Friday, May 9, 2008
Baghdad clashes 'kill 17 gunmen'
Seventeen militants have been killed in the last 24 hours in clashes with US and Iraqi forces in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the US military has said.
The fighting was concentrated in eastern Baghdad as an offensive against the Shia Mehdi Army militia continues.
Around 1,000 people, including many civilians, have been killed as the fighting in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City has intensified in recent weeks.
In the southern city of Basra, the UK army base at the airport was targeted.
Two US air strikes killed nine militants early on Thursday in the New Baghdad district while eight other militants were killed in several other clashes around Baghdad, including Sadr City, since Wednesday, the US military said.
Iraqi medical officials said at least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in fighting in Sadr City, Associated Press news agency reported. (BBC)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Aid groups: Embattled Baghdad district faces shortages as fighting widens
Entire sections of Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district have been left nearly abandoned by civilians fleeing a U.S.-led showdown with Shiite militias and seeking aid after facing shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian groups said Wednesday.
The reports by the agencies, including the U.N. children's fund, add to the individual accounts by civilians pouring out of the Sadr City area as clashes intensify.
U.S. forces have increased air power and armored patrols in the attempt to cripple Shiite militia influence in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Baghdad base for the Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The battles started in late March after the Iraqi government opened a crackdown on militias and armed gangs in the southern city of Basra, including some groups Washington says have links to Iran.
Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokeswoman based in Jordan, said up to 150,000 people - including 75,000 children - were isolated in sections of Sadr City "cordoned off by military forces." (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.N., U.S.
Iraq prepares for Baghdad exodus
The authorities in Baghdad say they are preparing for an exodus of thousands of people from eastern parts of the city.
Fighting between government and US troops on one side, and Shia militia on the other, has intensified recently.
Two football stadiums are on stand-by to receive residents from two neighbourhoods in the Sadr City area.
The government has warned of an imminent push to clear the areas of members of the Mehdi Army, loyal to the anti-American cleric, Moqtada Sadr.
In the last seven weeks around 1,000 people have died, and more than 2,500 others have been injured, most of them civilians.
The fighting so far in Sadr City has been fierce - street to street, and house to house.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is showing a determination to disarm the country's Shia militia groups - particularly the Mehdi Army - that he has never displayed before. (BBC)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, Refugees, U.S.
Attempted Killings Incite Violence in Iraq
Scattered violence struck areas of Baghdad as well as parts of central and northern Iraq on Tuesday, as a trickle of families began to leave Sadr City to escape bombings, and Iraqi security forces raided a hospital suspected of treating militia forces.
In Baghdad, there were clashes in Abu Dshir, a mostly Shiite neighborhood on the city’s southern edge. The tensions were between the Mahdi Army, loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and the National Police. Three civilians were killed and nine were wounded in the fighting. The area had been one of the most violent until late last summer, when it quieted down and the militia put away its weapons.
Prompting the clashes were the attempted assassinations of two dignitaries in Abu Dshir — one a leader in the local Badr Organization, a group linked to the Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a rival of Mr. Sadr’s who runs the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and the other the neighborhood’s imam. Although both men survived, the episodes set off fighting between factions loyal to Mr. Hakim and those loyal to Mr. Sadr, said Sayyid Malik Abadi, , the head of Abu Dshir’s security committee.
Two mortar shells exploded Tuesday morning in the Baghdad municipal building, killing three civilians and wounding 15 people. And a rocket landed in Al Mansour University College, wounding five students, according to an official at the Interior Ministry who asked not to be quoted because he was not authorized to speak on the record. (NY Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Iraqi militia commanders harden stance toward U.S.
It was sunset, and a pair of Iraqi soldiers were sitting in a roofless house by the Iranian border, awaiting orders. Suddenly, Abu Baqr recalls, his friend let out a gasp and fell silent, a sniper's bullet in his forehead. Abu Baqr couldn't help him, couldn't move for fear of being shot. He lay beside his friend's corpse until morning.
"How would you feel after that?" Abu Baqr asked. "You come out of that, you only come out bad."
Abu Baqr, now a commander in the Mahdi Army militia of cleric Muqtada Sadr, blames Iran for what happened to his friend more than 20 years ago during Iraq's war with Iran, just as he blames Saddam Hussein for that conflict.
He still hates Iran. But now, he said, he accepts its weapons to fight the U.S. military, figuring he can deal with his distaste for the Iranians later. So he takes bombs that can rip a hole in a U.S. tank and rockets that can pound Baghdad's Green Zone without apology or regret.
"I think that the Iranians are more dangerous than the Americans. I hate them and I don't trust them," he said in an interview over soft drinks. But the militia has limited resources, he said, and "therefore, when somebody gives you or offers help, it's hard to say no."
He laughed: "If it came from Israel, we would use it." (LA Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Monday, May 5, 2008
The last war and the next one
The last war won't end, but in the Pentagon they're already arguing about the next one.
Let's start with that "last war" and see if we can get things straight. Just over five years ago, American troops entered Baghdad in battle mode, felling the Sunni-dominated government of dictator Saddam Hussein and declaring Iraq "liberated". In the wake of the city's fall, after widespread looting, the new American administrators dismantled the remains of Saddam's government in its hollowed out, trashed ministries; disassembled the Sunni-dominated Ba'athist party which had ruled Iraq since the 1960s, sending its members home with news that there was no coming back; dismantled Saddam's 400,000 man army; and began to denationalize the economy. Soon, an insurgency of outraged Sunnis was raging against the American occupation.
After initially resisting democratic elections, American occupation administrators finally gave in to the will of the leading Shi'ite clergyman, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and agreed to sponsor them. In January 2005, these brought religious parties representing a long-oppressed Shi'ite majority to power, parties which had largely been in exile in neighboring Shi'ite Iran for years.
Now, skip a few years, and US troops have once again entered Baghdad in battle mode. This time, they've been moving into the vast Sadr City Shi'ite slum "suburb" of eastern Baghdad, which houses perhaps two-and-a-half million closely packed inhabitants. If free-standing, Sadr City would be the second-largest city in Iraq after the capital. This time, the forces facing American troops haven't put down their weapons, packed up, and gone home. This time, no one is talking about "liberation" or "freedom" or "democracy". In fact, no one is talking about much of anything. (Asia Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Deaths in fresh Baghdad fighting
At least 10 people have been killed in crossfire between US troops and Iraqi Shia fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City district, while a blast elsewhere has killed four US soldiers.
The clashes in Sadr City early on Sunday came a day after a US rocket attack damaged a hospital in the stronghold of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader.
Iraqi security officials and medical sources said another 17 people were also wounded in the fighting in Sadr City.
There was no immediate word from the US military.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the clashes which began on March 25 and followers of al-Sadr have accused the US military of killing civilians.
The US military charges that the fighters have been using civilians as human shields. (Al Jazeera)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Iraq delegation says Iran backs militant crackdown
Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against militants, the head of a delegation from Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance said on Saturday after returning from a visit to Tehran.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiya, reading a brief statement on Iraq's al-Furat television, said the delegation had "important and constructive" talks with Iranian officials about the security situation in Iraq.
Members of the United Iraqi Alliance had said the delegation was sent to Tehran to tell Iran to stop backing Shi'ite militias fighting U.S. and Iraqi security forces, underscoring Iraq's unease over the influence of its powerful neighbour.
But Attiya made no mention of the accusations.
"The delegation saw a positive stance from the brothers in Iran to support the government's efforts in extending the sovereignty of the state and to fight the outlaws," Attiya said.
"The delegation hopes this visit is the basis for strengthening relations between the two neighbouring states."
Members of the delegation, which included several influential officials including at least one close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, have not been reachable since they returned on Saturday from their trip, which lasted several days. (Reuters)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army
Friday, May 2, 2008
Iraq's Shiite clerics deeply divided on militia crackdown
Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias - one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.
The contrasting views - given during weekly sermons - showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shiite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, shows no indication of easing the pressure on groups including the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Iraqi and U.S. forces are pressing deeper into Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Mahdi Army's base in Baghdad. Al-Maliki also is seeking to increase leverage on Iran, which is accused of trading and arming some Shiite militia groups.
A five-member Iraqi delegation was sent to Tehran this week trying to try to choke off suspected Iranian aid to militiamen. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Iraq presents proof of Iranian meddling: official
An Iraqi delegation in Iran has confronted Iranian security officials with evidence that Tehran is providing support for Shi'ite militias battling Iraqi government forces, an Iraqi official said on Friday.
"They presented a list of names, training camps and cells linked to Iran," Haidar al-Ibadi, a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party, told Reuters.
"The Iranians did not confess or admit anything. They claim they are not intervening in Iraq and they feel they are being unfairly blamed for everything going on Iraq," he said of the talks, which took place on Thursday.
Ibadi said he had been in contact with the delegation.
Washington has long accused Tehran of backing Shi'ite militias, particularly fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, providing them with weapons, funding and training. It has displayed some of the weapons, including rockets and mortars. (Reuters)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Iraq PM sends team to Iran to discuss militias
Iraq's prime minister has sent a delegation to Tehran to tell Iranian officials to stop backing Shi'ite militias, Iraqi officials said on Thursday, underscoring Baghdad's unease over the influence of its powerful neighbor.
The delegation from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) left for Tehran on Wednesday in the wake of further accusations from U.S. officials that newly made Iranian weapons have been found in Iraq.
"The UIA has decided to send a delegation to press the Iranian government to stop financing and supporting the armed groups," said Sami al-Askari, a senior lawmaker in the Shi'ite alliance and a close confidant of Maliki.
Washington accuses Iran of arming, training and funding rogue elements of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Iran denies the charges and blames the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 for the violence in Iraq.
U.S. officials have stepped up their rhetoric against Iran since Maliki launched a crackdown on Shi'ite militias in the southern city of Basra in late March. (Reuters)
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army
Iraqi MPs call Maliki 'depraved'
Iraqi deputies have denounced the government, using a quotation from the Koran to describe Prime Minister Nouri Maliki as "depraved".
The criticism came from the bloc of MPs who support the Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr - which once backed Mr Maliki.
Iraqi troops and US-led foreign forces have been engaged in bloody battles with Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Moqtada Sadr over recent weeks.
Nine people died on Thursday in a Baghdad bomb blast aimed at US troops.
The death toll also rose in the sprawling Baghdad district of Sadr City.
In the latest violence, US forces said they had killed at least 16 militants, while heath officials said eight people had been killed overnight.
Over past weeks, more than 400 have been killed and 2,500 injured in Sadr City. (BBC)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
The heat is on Muqtada
The war continues between Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Iraqi army, resulting in nearly 1,000 dead in the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is waging war on his former ally Muqtada, said, "The suffering will not be long in Sadr City. We will save our brothers." Additionally, 20 US soldiers have been killed since April 1. According to a spokesman for the Iraqi government, there have been 925 killed and another 2,605 wounded.
This is a sharp increase in violence, from the 1,082 killed in March, and the very high 721 dead in February. The results have not been satisfying, to say the least, for Maliki. When the onslaught began, Maliki was ill-advised. Somebody told him he would be able to crush the Mahdi Army in a breeze.
Instead the Mahdi Army has not disintegrated, nor has it laid down its arms. It continues to fight - a war of survival - against Maliki and many uniformed Iraqi troops have laid down their arms and decided to stop fighting. In some cases, to the horror of the Americans urging Maliki to continue the war, some have even shifted sides, and taken up arms with Muqtada.
The young cleric insists his aim is to fight the Americans, not fellow Iraqis in the Maliki government, which he helped prop up in 2006. Gunmen had been attacking US troops, prompting Lieutenant Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for the US military, to say, "We have every right to defend ourselves. The problem is that they are using houses, rooftops and alleyways [as cover]." He added, "We are not preventing food, water, emergency vehicles from entering or exiting Sadr City." (Asia Times)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Blast in Baghdad kills nine, wounds 23: police
An explosion near a U.S. patrol in Baghdad killed nine Iraqis and wounded 23 on Thursday, Iraqi police said.
The police said there were also some casualties among U.S. troops. A U.S. military spokesman said he was not immediately able to confirm the report.
The blast in eastern Baghdad's Camp Sara district came a day after Iraqi Health Ministry figures showed April had been the deadliest month for Iraqi civilians since August, with 968 killed nationwide.
April was also the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since September, with 49 reported killed.
Police did not say who they blamed for Thursday's blast. (Reuters)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Baghdad clashes 'leave 400 dead' (AFP - 'at least 925')
More than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month between Shia gunmen and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in Baghdad say.
The Sadr City district of the Iraqi capital has seen most of the fighting as the government tries to disarm members of Shia militias.
Two US soldiers have died in the latest Baghdad clashes, the US military said.
April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 46 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died.
The US military said both soldiers died in the north-west of the city on Tuesday night in separate attacks.
One soldier was killed when he came under small-arms fire, the other died when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. (BBC)
AFP, quoting a senior Iraqi official, has the number at 925:
More than 900 people have been killed in clashes between militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City that broke out last month, a senior Iraqi official told reporters on Wednesday.
"There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," in the firefights that began on March 25 and are still continuing, said Tehseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan. (AFP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
US troop deaths push monthly toll to 7-month high in Iraq
The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September, the military said Wednesday.
One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the military said. Both incidents occurred Tuesday in northwestern Baghdad.
A third soldier died in a roadside bombing Tuesday night in the east of the capital, the military said.
The statement did not give a more specific location. But the eastern half of Baghdad includes embattled Sadr City and other neighborhoods that have been the focus of intense combat between Shiite militants and U.S.-Iraqi troops for more than a month.
In all, at least 4,059 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
US push into Shiite stronghold faces militia ambush and rise in `brazen' backlash
Dozens of fighters ambushed a U.S. patrol in Baghdad's main Shiite militia stronghold Tuesday, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun bursts as the American push into Sadr City increasingly faces pockets of close urban combat.
U.S. forces struck back with 200-pound guided rockets that devastated at least three buildings in the densely packed district that serves as the Baghdad base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia.
The U.S. military said 28 militiamen were killed as the U.S. patrol pulled back. Local hospital officials said dozens of civilians were killed or wounded.
Such street battles - in tight confines and amid frightened civilians - are increasingly becoming a hallmark of the drive into Sadr City and recall the type of head-on clashes last seen in large numbers during last year's U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad and surrounding areas. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Officials: 8 killed, 67 wounded in Baghdad's Sadr City
A senior government official was assassinated in Baghdad on Tuesday as clashes between Shiite militants and U.S. and Iraqi forces in the capital's Sadr City district left eight other people dead, officials said.
The violence in the embattled area appeared to be a continuation of heavy fighting over the weekend in which about 45 militants and four U.S. soldiers have died.
A showdown between Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army militia - led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - has increasingly drawn U.S. troops into battle. American commanders are particularly focused on trying to curb a rise in mortar and rocket attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad that houses Iraq's government and many foreign embassies.
Overnight clashes resulted in 42 injuries, officials at the Imam Ali and al-Sadr general hospitals said. Eight more were killed and 25 wounded in continuing firefights on Tuesday morning, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
AP Television News footage showed men helping women cross the street and children running for cover behind blast walls amid gunshots. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.
Monday, April 28, 2008
American, Iraqi troops kill 38 militants in Baghdad
American and Iraqi troops killed 38 militants in the fiercest clashes with militants in weeks in Baghdad, including 22 who attacked a military checkpoint in a Shiite militia stronghold, the U.S. military said Monday.
Suspected Shiite extremists, apparently taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed the capital, attacked several checkpoints and hammered the U.S.-protected Green Zone in the fiercest salvo in weeks on Sunday. The sandstorm had grounded the American aircraft that normally prowl for launching teams.
Attacks continued Monday morning as insurgents lobbed more rockets or mortar shells toward the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. embassy and much of the Iraqi government on the west side of the Tigris River, benefiting from continued limited visibility that gave cover to the launching teams. Alarms could be heard and the public address system in the area warned residents to take cover and stay away from windows. (AP)
Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army, U.S.