Posted on 08/13/2006 12:23:44 PM PDT by jmc1969
American and Iraqi forces face a major problem in Baghdad: how to deal with the Mahdi Army, which has been linked to death squads responsible for a string of assassinations and kidnappings. Worse, the Mahdi Army's leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, seems to be losing his grip on the thousands of armed men who once followed his every word.
"There are forces that are controlled by Moqtada, but there are commanders that are not controlled by him; there are death squads that are not controlled by him," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told NEWSWEEK.
Under the leadership of Sadr, the Mahdi Army was considered a containable force, susceptible to political bargaining. But as Sadr has leaned toward moderation—his party now has 30 seats in the National Assembly—men fighting under his militia's banner have become more aggressive.
In interviews with NEWSWEEK, Mahdi Army members, Iraqi politicians and Western officials describe an organization in which local commanders are increasingly independent from Sadr, splintering into cells of fighters committed to civil war. There are at least four offshoot Mahdi leaders in Sadr City alone; some groups are taking orders from Iran.
There's similar fragmentation in the largely Shiite cities of Najaf and Basra. According to a U.S. military intel official in Najaf, Coalition forces have been attacked by individuals who get their inspiration from the Mahdi Army but are not official members—men with "an AK-47, an RPG and a Sadr poster," says the official, requesting anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. The situation is so volatile that, according to the U.S. officials, Sadr now fears for his own safety and position. The United States is targeting militia-run death squads in the new Baghdad security operation.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I am certain this reporting is so unbiased (/S).
Mookie a moderate? BS&W. He is a bagman for the Iranians. and the militia needs that money to function. On the other hand, ket us accept Newspeals position. Then Mookie will be strengthed by a suppression of the militia.
Notice that the initial focus was on armed men, not politics.
Remember, the Newsweek theory is that the world is better off with no guns and no Jews.
The world wouldbe better off with no Mookie Sadr. They should have knocked off this retard a year ago.
Perhaps they're taking orders directly from Iran now.
You hit the nail on the head. Sadr may have created the militia, but Iran has been paying their bills and most armed forces are loyal to those buttering their bread.
If Mookie is a pawn then the US should use him as long as he's useful.
Sadr is against the south of Iraq breaking away to form its own Shia state and that is where the main divergence comes between him and Iran. The SCIRI are even closer to Iran then Sadr and they support breaking up the country into three parts.
Prove that he is following Iran's orders and this pawn can be removed from the board.
If that's the case, he's better off dead.
In the convoluted world of Iraqi religious politics:
The Islamic Dawa Party or Islamic Call Party is, historically, a militant Shiite Islamic group and, presently, an Iraqi political party.
Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq are two of the main parties in the religious-Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which won a plurality of seats in both the provisional January 2005 Iraqi election and the longer-term December 2005 election.
The party is led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a doctor, who served as the Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 until May 20, 2006. The party's deputy leader, Nouri al-Maliki, is the current Prime Minister of Iraq.
Al-Dawa was formed in the late 1950s by a group of Shi'ite leaders, with Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr, the uncle of Muqtada al-Sadr, playing a prominent role. It was created to combat secularism, communism, and Baathist Arab socialism, which were then ascendant in Iraq.
He lost grip on them in August of 2004 when they fragged him to end the standoff in Najaf instead of getting killed by US and Iraqi soldiers.
It's happened before.
Why has he been permitted to live this long? The sooner that the gloves come off and they eliminate the radical clerics and mosques the sooner this thing cools.
Moqty never had a grip.
The members of the Madhi Army are mostly street gang types given a uniform and an AK-47. They like to play extortion and kidnapping games, but they're too scared to take on the Americans directly.
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