Posted on 03/28/2008 8:30:00 AM PDT by maquiladora
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.
The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi'ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose forces have failed to drive fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr off the streets of Iraq's second-largest city.
Authorities shut down Baghdad with a strict curfew, but that did not halt rocket attacks and clashes in the capital.
Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim acknowledged that Iraqi security forces had been caught off-guard by their foes.
"We supposed that this operation would be a normal operation, but we were surprised by this resistance and have been obliged to change our plans and our tactics," he told a news conference in Basra. Reporters were brought to the briefing in military vehicles and kept inside because of clashes nearby.
Parliament called an emergency meeting to end the impasse, but just 54 members of the 275-seat body managed to get inside the fortified "Green Zone" government and diplomatic compound, which was bombarded by rockets as they gathered.
One missile hit the Green Zone office of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, killing a security guard. The U.S. embassy ordered its staff in the zone to stay under cover when possible and wear body armour and helmets when in the open.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who had given the Basra militants 72 hours to surrender, extended his deadline, giving them until April 8 to turn in their weapons for cash.
The government says it is fighting "outlaws", but Sadr's followers say political parties in Maliki's Shi'ite-led government are using military force to marginalise their rivals ahead of local elections due by October.
The Iraqi ground commander in Basra, Major-General Ali Zaidan, told Reuters his forces had killed 120 "enemy" fighters and wounded around 450 since the campaign began on Tuesday.
But Reuters television footage from Basra showed masked gunmen from Sadr's Mehdi Army still in control of the streets, openly carrying rocket launchers and machine guns.
A British Ministry of Defence spokesman said U.S. warplanes had opened fire in Basra for the first time, dropping bombs in support of Iraqi units on the direction of U.S. or British control teams operating with Iraqis on the ground.
British ground troops which patrolled Basra until December have so far remained on a base outside the city.
The fighting has trapped Basra residents in their homes, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations said it was standing by with blood bags, trauma kits, 200 tonnes of emergency food and 39 million water purification tablets.
Sadr, who helped install Maliki in power after an election in 2005 but later broke with him, has called for talks. But Maliki has vowed to battle on with no negotiations.
The clashes have all but wrecked a truce Sadr declared last year, which Washington had said helped curb violence.
A Reuters witness said Mehdi Army gunmen had seized control of the southern city of Nassiriya. Mehdi Army fighters have also held territory or fought with authorities in Kut, Hilla, Amara, Kerbala, Diwaniya and other towns throughout the Shi'ite south over the past several days.
In Baghdad there have been clashes in at least 13 mainly Shi'ite neighbourhoods, especially Sadr City, the vast slum named for the cleric's slain father and his main power base.
"There have been engagements going on in and around Sadr City. We've engaged the enemy with artillery, we've engaged the enemy with aircraft, we've engaged the enemy with direct fire," said Major Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad.
In one strike before dawn, a U.S. helicopter fired a hellfire missile at gunmen firing from the roof of a building, killing four of them, Cheadle said. A Reuters photographer there filmed windows blown out of cars and walls pocked with shrapnel.
Later in the day cars were engulfed in flames after an apparent air strike on a Sadr City parking lot. Police said another U.S. air strike in Kadhimiya, a Sadr stronghold in northern Baghdad, killed five people. U.S. forces said they killed 27 fighters in operations in the capital on Thursday.
In Nassiriya, a Reuters reporter said he could see groups of fighters with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The sound of sporadic gunfire echoed through the streets. Police appeared to be staying in their stations.
Militants have also taken control of the town of Shatra, 40 km to the north, he said, citing witnesses.
Oil exports from Basra provide 80 percent of Iraq's government revenue. A blast at a pipeline there hurt exports on Thursday, but they were back to normal on Friday.
Send Condie Rice. She’ll fix it.
Have you seen much action around where you are, Allegra?
Picture Chicago when they finally took on Capone. Thats whats happening in Basra. The area was calm before only because the local government is in league with the militias. The escalation in violence is not because things are falling apart, its because the central government is FINALLY taking a stand against the bad guys.
G*****n Sadr.
We should have taken that guy out a few years ago, and made it look like a rival.
I smell enemy propaganda BS.
I understand about Basra, but the Sadr’s supporters are trying to widen the concflict and that simply cannot be allowed to happend. Fortunately, it looks like most of the conflict is occurring between rival Shiite factions, and doesn’t appear to risk dragging the Sunnis back into fighting.
My dad (R.I.P.) used to get quite exasperated with me when he would ask me to do something and would usually end up mumbling under his breath “if you want something done you're better off to do it yourself”. Well, that's how I feel about handling Milk Dud and his boys. We still owe him big time for a lot of America's finest who died the last time he raised his ugly head. If you want it done, and done right, do it yourself! I want the satisfaction of knowing it was American bombs and firepower that finally put an end to dickering with this SOB.
I believe this is all done to give the Mainstream Media some bad news to report over here.
They’re paying attention to Iraq now.
Yep, thats the reason Sadr is trying to expand the fighting-he wants the government crackdown to end. The funny thing is the libs and anti-war types who keep complaining the central government will not crack down on their fellow shiites are now looking at this violence as a negative. HELLO!!! They are doing EXACTLY what you were complaining they weren’t doing!!!
I’m sure things are relatively calm at drug houses compared to the violence that occurs when the cops show up in tactical gear and surround the place. As a neighbor, you don’t curse the cops about the “increased violence”, you praise them and say “its about damn time”.
If it bleeds...
Leave nothing standing, no place to hide, no buildings to duck for cover.
Either fight this thing or lets withdrawal our troops. The hell with all this PC crap.
Seriously, if Maliki can slap down the Shia militias the game is pretty much over in Iraq. The US forces pretty much wiped out Al Queda. Then the Sunnis basically unified to clean-out the remnants of the foreign fighters. The only bad guys left are the Iranian-backed Shia militias. Sooner or later this fight had to be made. The fact that Maliki is choosing the seizing the initiative bodes well.
Our job will be to prevent Iran from resupplying. That's a job for Condi -- actually, I'd send Cheyney.
The intelligence pretty much agrees that Sadr ain’t in charge anymore. The Iranians are pretty much running the show by dealing directly with his lieutenants.
Actually, it is the al-Hakim Badr Corp which is closest to Iran.
Oh, yes. We've got 50-yardline seats, being between the Green Zone and Sadr City.
We hear a lot more than we see, but we are hearing quite a lot of activity. But we do see sometimes, too...when stuff flies right over us.
Oh S**t,theyve got us right where they want us,just like mice drawn to the cheeze.
I (heart) the MSM
I am fairly certain that the IA and the US/UK forces are decimating the opposition.The ‘Iraqis’ killed in these outbursts are primarily terrorists,of course that will not make it into the reporting.
I think even Mookie/Iran understands that a drawn out battle now will result in two things 1) his forces being destroyed methodically and 2) Irans involvement will become even more transparent than it already is.
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