Iraqi Army Detains 16 Suspects; Insurgents Kill 15 Civilians

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From the Fourth Rail:

Dividing the Mahdi Army

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Multinational Forces Iraq is negotiating with elements of the Mahdi Army

With Muqtada al-Sadr now in Iran, the Iraqi government and Coalition forces are stepping up efforts to divide and conquer his Mahdi Army. Asharq Alawsat has confirmed that Multinational Forces Iraq (MNF-I) is "holding talks with commanders of Muqtada al-Sadr's Al-Mahdi Army with the 'Iraqi Government's blessing,'" as well as "several Iraqi armed group."

Major General Bill Caldwell, the MNF-I spokesman, went to explain that the Mahdi Army isn't commanded from the top-down, and there is room to divide the group and get elements to lay down their arms. "The Al-Mahdi Army is so fractured, and for example, we might speak to one group in Baghdad, but another group in Basra would be different... It would be irresponsible not to pursue all avenues – the political part of the plan means engagement and bringing all into the political process.” Some groups are beyond the political process. “There are irreconcilable groups, that includes Al-Qaeda and Shia extremist elements that we view as being irreconcilable – these are often personality based rather than group-based," said Maj Gen Caldwell.

The military and intelligence sources we speak to disagree with the assessment that there are "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army. Strong evidence that Sadr maintains a high degree of command and control can be seen when Sadr ordered his fighters to not oppose the Baghdad Security Plan. The sectarian violence dropped immediately (from 1,222 deaths in December 2006 to 494 in February 2007) and the Mahdi Army fighters abandoned their check posts in Sadr City and elsewhere.

And from the comments section on the above article a link:

The Back Story: The Attempt to Kill Iraq's Shia VP What's Fact, What's Speculation?
Meantime, Maliki's Chilly Reception At Intel HQ

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The scoop from Iraq's Arabic-language Web sites

Photo by stringer/AFP/Getty Images

Iraqi VP Adel Abdul-Mahdi, February 21

SCIRI’s Buratha Agency quotes an unnamed security source who stated that the failed assassination attempt against Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi at the Ministry of Municipalities yesterday was the work of an official attending the conference in which Abdul Mahdi was supposed to be giving a speech. “The video archives show that the bombing took place as soon as Dr. Abdul Mahdi stood to give his speech after the minister had given a short word welcoming Dr. Abdul Mahdi,” the source said. “This indicates that the person who held the remote control device to trigger the bombing was watching the scene.” The source added that only the “mercy of God” saved Dr. Abdul Mahdi’s life since the bomb was placed under a chair where he was supposed to be seated, but, given Dr. Abdul Mahdi’s “well-known modesty,” he took the first empty seat that he could find on the other end of the hall. This also supported the theory that the bomber was aware of the protocols followed in the ministry and where Abdul Mahdi would be seated, the source said. Abdul Mahdi had also told SCIRI’s Al-Furat satellite channel that a “senior official” in the Sadrist-controlled ministry was behind his assassination attempt without giving further details. The bombing claimed the lives of seven people, including the deputy minister of municipalities Ghazi Naji Al-Anbari, and wounded 31 others.

The Iraqi Rabita speculates that the Mahdi Army was implicated in the assassination attempt, with the possible knowledge of PM Maliki, especially since Abdul Mahdi had announced his willingness to take Maliki’s position if he were to be deposed by the U.S. for his incompetence. Abdul Mahdi’s bodyguards were cursing Sadrists after the bombing, according to an uncorroborated eyewitness account from the scene. The Rabita also quotes “informed sources from Najaf” that both SCIRI and the Da’wa Party are competing for U.S. blessings and acceptance by giving the names of their opponents to the U.S. military.

The Al-Badeel Al-Iraqi website reports that senior commanders of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Jaish Al-Mujahideen and the 1920 Revolution Brigades were killed in the car bombing that targeted a mosque in Habbaniya in the Anbar Governorate two days ago. Ayad Al-Dulaimi, Khalid Abdullah Al-Khalifawi and Abu Al-Waleed Al-Mar’awi from the Islamic Army and Aswad Kamil Al-Falahi and Ahmed Sabah from the 1920 Revolution Brigades were all killed in the explosion. Sheikh Mohammed Al-Mar’awi, the imam of the mosque, had criticized Al-Qaeda for targeting American troops in the vicinity of civilian areas, according to the website. During the last Friday prayer sermon, he said that kidnapping a young girl to force her father to surrender is “not the behavior of mujahideen,” referring to Al-Qaeda intimidation tactics against rival armed groups. “Is it courageous for the so-called lions of monotheism to fire rockers at American bases from between the houses of innocent civilians, despite the pleading of women and old ladies, and then the lions flee while American fighters and mortars start bombing the residential areas?” the sheikh had asked his audience during a recent sermon at the mosque. Leaders of the Al-Bu Khaleefa and Al-Bu Mar’ee Dulaim clans had arrived at the scene of the bombing and started cursing Al-Qaeda after witnessing what happened to their clan members. The son of an Al-Bu Nimir clan leader, after seeing torn limbs of women and children, started screaming hysterically, “May God expose the privates of their women and families, like they have done to ours.”

The Haqq Agency reports through anonymous sources inside the Iraqi Parliament that U.S. and Iraqi military officers barred Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and National Security Advisor Muwafaq Al-Rubai’I from entering the Iran department in the new Iraqi Intelligence Agency (the Mukhabarat) during an official tour Monday. The sources said that Maliki and Rubai’I were visiting the Mukhabarat departments, located at the former Workers Union building near the Convention Center in the Green Zone, accompanied by U.S. and Iraqi military officers. Director of Intelligence General Mohammed Abdullah Al-Shahwani and his deputy General Abdul Latif refused to meet with Maliki and Rubai’I, according to the sources. The official delegation toured the departments of telecommunications, reconnaissance and archives, while the Iran department, which former Iraqi intelligence officers recruited by Shahwani and U.S. officers operated, remained closed to inspection.

Interesting stuff, I must say. Nothing is cut and dry when dealing with arabs.

Quite interesting article. At least some public figures in Iraq are making public statements to the effect those killing innocents are nothing but a bunch of screwed up cowards in most cases. Tell all Iraqi... these so called lions hide in shadows and lob mortars into the innocent as well as those that are in Iraq to really help Iraqi.
These people as a nation must start realizing they gotta get off their fat asses and start to point the fingers at everyone that is causing their families to die.
It is nothing different then Chicago in the twenties when mobs ruled the scene.
And really no different then what goes on in big US cities with say drug gangs. Only difference is these camel humpers have the world's L/MSM reporting every evil deed they manage to pull off.