[Tribune7]

What is clear is this: U.S. forces had pushed al-Sadr's fighters into two final strongholds in Kufa and Najaf by the end of last week and brought the United States to the cusp of solving one of the thorniest problems ahead of the June 30 hand-over of power to the Iraqi people.

U.S. commanders estimated that there were 2,500 al-Mahdi fighters across the country at the beginning of the uprising. By late last week, they believed there were fewer than 500.

This is from Knight-Ridder??

[oceanview]

The media has been talking about this Sadr militia as if they were the German 1st Panzer division. He had at most 6000 street thugs, half of which peeled off the first day the shooting started. The rest were blown away, several hundred per week, at a steady clip.