Mahdi Army taking significant casualties in Baghdad, South

The Long War Journal ^ | 29 March 2008 | Bill Roggio

[DJ Elliott]

With the fifth day of fighting in Baghdad, Basrah and the South completed, the Mahdi Army has suffered major losses over the past 36 hours. The Mahdi Army has not faired well over the past five days of fighting, losing an estimated two percent of its combat power, using the best case estimate for the size of the militia.

A look at the open source press reports from the US and Iraqi military and the established newspapers indicates 134 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 81 were wounded, 98 were captured, and 30 surrendered during the past 36 hours.

Since the fighting began on Tuesday 347 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 531 were wounded, 343 were captured, and 30 surrendered. The US and Iraqi security forces have killed 125 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad alone, while Iraqi security forces have killed 140 Mahdi fighters in Basra.

While the size of the Mahdi Army is a constant source of debate, media accounts often put the Mahdi Army at anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 fighters. With an estimated 1,000 Mahdi fighters killed, captured, wounded and surrendered, the Mahdi Army has taken an attrition rate of 1.5 to 2.5 percent over the past five days.

[DJ Elliott]

And this is just what has shown up.

Since JAM is now asking for help from Hezbolla, I suspect that they are getting hit worse... http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3524897,00.html

As to the report of 40 defectors in Sadr City, ISF only has 15 unaccounted for. Claiming three times as many is standard practice for JAM...

[DJ Elliott]

The term for the JAM victory so far is Phyric.
Another two months of victories like this and JAM will be gone...

Just in time for elections without them...

[purpleraine]

When the leader escapes from Teheran, hang him.

[patriciaruth]

I’ll tell you how to spell Pyrrhic if you’ll tell me what JAM stands for.

[mdittmar]

That’s a shame;)

[G8 Diplomat]

Sweet!

[Uncle Miltie]

Jaish al Mahdi, IIRC.

[Uncle Miltie]

The Mahdi Army, also known as the Mahdi Militia or Jaish al Mahdi (Arabic جيش المهدي), is an Iraqi paramilitary force created by the Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi_Army

[jdm]

[DJ Elliott]

Jaish al Mahdi

And I hit the publish too quick...
lol

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

You'd never know this by following the MSM "news". I'm so glad they're going bankrupt faster than you can shake a stick.

PS: Also, expect a "cease fire (Hudna) offer soon from that cowardly Butt-Boy (aka Mookie).

[patriciaruth]

Thanks for help with the alphabet soup.

[navyguy]

None of it means a hill of beans if we refuse to kill Al-Sadr (again).

[Eleutheria5]

Somebody please comfort John Moore.

[ModelBreaker]

The timing on this phase of the war is interesting. I have no doubt the Iranians were planning a "Tet" offensive in the few months before the election in November. But this isn't it. It's too early.

What that says is that its likely our guys decided to make the timing their own and to disrupt the Iranian networks and Al Sadr before they could mount a Tet. If my speculation is correct, then hats off to the allies for innovative and aggressive preemption. We can play the election as well as Iran.

[Wpin]

What you say makes good sense, however I wonder if the democrat primary is not the target here. And if so, who would most likely benefit from the Insurgent “Tet”? Obama...something to think about.

[DGHoodini]

Hopefully tomorrow, it’ll be 4%.

[TigerLikesRooster]

So Mahdi Army has never improved. It is big in size but utterly ineffective in combat.

I wonder if they run around in groups, which would make them easy prey for one successful hit from a warplane or artillery.

[DGHoodini]

...and 10% by Wednesday.

[DGHoodini]

But you know Mookie isn’t really going to start getting nervous until over 20,000 of his thugs have been killed.