Posted on 10/31/2006 7:47:18 AM PST by Dubya
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops on Tuesday abandoned checkpoints around the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on orders from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the latest in a series of moves by the Iraqi leader to assert his authority with the U.S. administration.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers in fighting in the Baghdad area on Monday, one from small arms fire, the other from a roadside bomb. Those brought the number of troops killed in Iraq this month to 103.
U.S. forces disappeared from the checkpoints within hours of the order to remove the around-the-clock barriers by 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), setting off celebrations among civilians and armed men gathered on the edge of the sprawling slum that is under the control of the Mahdi Army militia run by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Iraqi troops loaded coils of barbed wire and red traffic cones onto pickup trucks, while small groups of men and children danced in circles chanting slogans praising al-Sadr, who earlier Tuesday had ordered the area closed to the Iraqi government until U.S. troops lifted what he called their "siege" of the neighborhood.
Extra checkpoints were set up last week as U.S. troops launched an intensive search for a missing soldier, who has yet to be found.
Shortly after leaving Sadr city, U.S. troops dismantled other checkpoints in the downtown Karradah neighborhood where the soldier had been abducted, loading barbed wire coils onto their Stryker armored vehicles.
Al-Maliki's statement said U.S.-manned checkpoints "should not be taken except during nighttime curfew hours and emergencies."
"Joint efforts continue to pursue terrorists and outlaws who expose the lives of citizens to killings, abductions and explosions," said the statement, issued in al-Maliki's name in his capacity both as prime minister and commander of the Iraqi armed forces.
U.S. troops have increased their presence on Baghdad streets as part of a two-month-old security crackdown. However, they rarely man checkpoints in populated areas where they risk coming under attack or angering residents by conducting vehicle and body searches.
Al-Maliki's order underscored the his government's reliance of Shiite support and sensitivity to their concerns.
Besides al-Sadr, the largest Shiite coalition in the 275-member parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance, had also condemned the checkpoints for inflicting what it described as "collective punishment" against residents of Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods.
"Kidnapping a man can't be a pretext for laying siege to these neighborhoods," Sheik Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, a prominent Shiite lawmaker, said at a news conference.
Al-Maliki's threatened to further roil relations with the U.S. that hit a rough patch last week after Al-Maliki issued a string of bitter complaints - at one point saying he was not "America's man in Iraq."
Al-Maliki had apparently been angered by a statement from U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that the prime minister had agreed to set a timeline for progress on reaching security and political goals - something al-Maliki denied. He also angrily rebuked the U.S. for a raid on Sadr city targeting an alleged death squad leader in which 10 people were killed.
U.S. concern over the relationship was signaled when National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley showed up unannounced in Baghdad on Monday to meet with al-Maliki and his security chief, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, telling them he "wanted to reinforce some of the things you have heard from our president."
Al-Rubaie told the AP late Monday that Hadley was here to discuss the work of a five-man committee that al-Maliki and Bush agreed to Saturday.
Hadley also presented some proposals concerning the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces as well as security plans. U.S. spokesmen could not immediately be reached on Tuesday and it wasn't known whether Hadley had yet returned to Washington.
American voter support for the war at a low point as the Nov. 7 congressional election approaches, and a top aide to al-Maliki said the Iraqi leader was using the Republicans' vulnerability on the issue to leverage concessions from the White House - particularly the speedy withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi cities to U.S. bases in the country.
Al-Maliki has said he believes that the continued presence of American forces in Iraq's population centers is partly behind the surge in violence.
His government depends heavily on the backing of a pair of Shiite political organizations and has resisted concerted American pressure to eradicate their private armies - al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade, the military wing of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political bloc, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.
Three people were killed and five injured by a car bomb in Sadr City early Tuesday, a day after 33 were killed in a similar attack in the district targeting day laborers lining up for jobs.
Both attacks were carried out despite the U.S. security cordon, bringing accusations from residents that the checkpoints had decreased security by restricting the movement of Mahdi fighters.
At least three Iraqi policemen were also reported killed on Tuesday morning in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Fallujah, police said.
The bodies five unidentified people, including a woman, were found dumped early Tuesday morning in eastern Baghdad, police Maj. Mahir Hamid Mussa said. Those killed had been tied up and blindfolded, with their bodies showing signs of torture, Mussa said.
Five more bodies in similar condition were floating in the Tigris River near Suwayrah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, a clerk at the town morgue, Hadi al-Etabi, said.
Further south, the morgue in the town of Kut reported receiving 10 bodies, including those of five people allegedly killed by U.S. forces in a raid on a house in the Shejeriyah area, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Baghdad, said Maamoun Ajil al-Robaeie, a morgue employee.
New violence was also reported in Baqouba, a chaotic city north of Baghdad where police and militants fought bloody gunbattles last week.
Unidentified gunmen killed three people in a downtown market and attacked a police patrol, killing one officer and injuring two others, according to a spokesman for the Diyala provincial police.
Five bodies were found in the Abu Seida district, 25 kilometers (10 hectares) northeast of the city, said the police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Gunmen killed Sheik Raed Naeem al-Juheishi, the head of a non-governmental organization dedicated to tracing the fate of victims of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, in a drive-by-shooting Monday night in Baghdad's chaotic Dora district, Col. Mohammed Ali said.
Saddam and seven co-defendants - including a half brother - have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005 for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150 Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the president in 1982.
A second trial - for genocide against the Kurds - began in August and more are expected to follow.
The military said U.S. troops killed five suspected insurgents and detained one on Tuesday morning during a raid in Baghdad targeting suspected associates of a senior of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group.
So now more weapons will flow in and out of the city...
I've seen at least two other articles from AP with the same theme of the US getting pushed around by the Iraqi PM.
Ah, another AP stringer passing terrorist propaganda as news.
bump
Yes, but sometimes the correct move strategically is a problem for the local operational or tactical situation. This is one of those times.
Convincing the Iraqis that we really are just there to help now, that it's their county, is part of the way to victory. This may cost lives over the next few weeks, but it and a few other moves of the same political import should save more lives in the long run.
Looks like Al Malaki and Mookie are in bed together. This really stinks.
Everyone's busy
saying it's not Vietnam,
but it's possible
if this stuff keeps up
Iraq may turn out to be
worse than Vietnam . . .
You know you are a moron.
http://www.mindsim.com/MindSim/Corporate/OODA.html
Yup...sectarian death squads and cities run by the militias of radical imams is progress in every sense of the word!
Incompetent? It seems to me he's quite competently doing exactly what Moqtada al-Sadr wants him to do.
I agree; if al-Maliki has a plan to reign in the militias, I see no evidence of it at this point. And if the militias cannot be stopped, there is no hope for a stable Iraq and we should get out. We should say, "Ok, al-Malaki, if you won't let us put the militias out of operation, there's nothing more we can do here - you are on your own, and good luck."
I can't see this as good news. Iran has a satellite leader in Iraq (the fat one) and now we're going to back off at Maliki's request.
Unless there's a bigger plan that I can't see(like pulling our troops out of the way so we can level the entire 'sadr' area), we will be called upon to clean up a much bigger mess in the future.
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