Sunday morning in Australia, the drought has broken, the coffee's great...and now THIS!
Posted on 04/19/2008 3:42:52 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
IRAQI forces backed by British troops and artillery seized the main stronghold of the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern port city of Basra yesterday.
The operation, which also involved RAF and American aircraft, forced the cleric’s Mahdi army militants to cede control of a district where they had fought off an Iraqi onslaught last month.
A senior Mahdi source in Basra said British soldiers - believed to be SAS troops directing attacks - had accompanied the Iraqis as they moved into the district of Hayaniya.
British officials said only that “liaison teams” were advising Iraqi commanders on the ground, after US criticism during Gordon Brown’s visit to Washington of earlier failures to clear militants from the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I really like the Headline....
Cleric Sadr threatens "open war" on Iraq government
Of course the Militia in Basra seems to have abandoned lots of their weapons....just left many of them in the street when they fled the Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Army Seizes Basra From Militia as Cleric Threatens New Uprising
***************************EXCERPT*************************
By JAMES GLANZ and ALISSA J. RUBIN
BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters.
By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting with little resistance, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry in Baghdad.
Despite the apparent concession of Basra, Mr. Sadr issued defiant words on Saturday night. In a long statement read from the loudspeakers of his Sadr City Mosque, he threatened to declare “war until liberation” against the government if fighting against his militia forces continued. He compared the Iraqi government to that of Saddam Hussein and said that the government had become the enemy along with Sunni extremists and the Americans.
The developments followed a pattern that has been seen again and again in the Basra fighting, where Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi militia has battled Iraqi government troops to a standstill and then retreated. Why his fighters have clung to those fight-then-fade tactics is unknown. But American military and civilian officials have repeatedly claimed that Mahdi Army units trained and equipped by Iran had played a major role in the unexpectedly strong resistance that government troops met in Basra.
Whether to counter those allegations or simply because, as many Iraqis have recently speculated, Mr. Sadr’s stock has recently fallen in Iranian eyes, the Iranian ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, on Saturday expressed his government’s strong support for the Iraqi assault on Basra. He even called the militias in Basra “outlaws,” the same term that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has used to describe them.
Sunday morning in Australia, the drought has broken, the coffee's great...and now THIS!
********************EXCERPT*********************
Whether to counter those allegations or simply because, as many Iraqis have recently speculated, Mr. Sadr’s stock has recently fallen in Iranian eyes, the Iranian ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, on Saturday expressed his government’s strong support for the Iraqi assault on Basra. He even called the militias in Basra “outlaws,” the same term that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has used to describe them.
“The idea of the government in Basra was to fight outlaws,” Mr. Qumi said. “This was the right of the government and the responsibility of the government. And in my opinion the government was able to achieve a positive result in Basra.”
No doubt made in Iran.
Hey, I'm just a simple Aussie...don't have a phd in political science LOL!...but if you're asking me, here goes:
IMO Mookie is dead. Iran has been 'represented' by his 'office' in Basra. Now that it's gone PFFFT the Iranians have lost their tool of influence and their organizational ability. It's pull-back time to plot the next infiltration tactic...but with a bunch of hooligans as an 'army' that are dumping their weapons and running, it don't look so good for them.
One more thing. I think there are a number of Shia in Basra who are NOT Mookie-lovers. If the tide has turned against the taliban-style tactics of the Iranian and alQaeda foreigners who are behind the beatings of Basra citizens who are simply trying to exist and earn a living -by destroying their market stalls for example ( as I saw on video recently) the Iranians can probably relate this to what happened with the Anbar Awakening. Making enemies in Basra doesn't serve the Iranian purpose.
Anyway, with Mookies 'office' gone, the tentacles are literally cut and the Basrans have nothing more to be afraid of! That Basra woman who said (through a translator) that they were no better off now than under Saddam, might as well have said SHARIA is the same as a dictatorship, and there must be a whole lot more just like her.
Even if Mookie is still alive, I can't see how he can return nor re-establish his power. How does that sound?
Cleric Sadr threatens “open war” on Iraq government
abc news ^ | Apr 19, 2008 | Dean Yates and Wisam Mohammed
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004115/posts
“Sadr’s movement accuses other Shi’ite parties of getting their militias into the Iraqi security forces, especially in southern Shi’ite Iraq where various factions are competing for influence in a region home to most of Iraq’s oil output...”
I haven’t seen the videos....but those would be great...I like the way things are going down there.
A ME Diplomat working both sides of the street, both ends against the middle? Unheard of, my good man. And I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that many FReepers may think an Iranioan diplomat, an Ambassador, would be party to such underhanded double-dealing, even if ordered to do so by his government!
he's a fat, ugly, murdering, dirty night-shirt wearing, bearded, rotten-teeth fundamentalist MOHAMMADAN - what else could he possibly be BUT stupid!?
PS. I think he's passed his use-by-date to the Iranians and the only thing that's keeping him 'alive' is the MSM.
Hard to believe that the British are finally doing something in Basra after neglecting the city so long.
See thread at #15...
Gee wheez Fred. Your being a bit tough on the beast, taint ya.
That a load of camel droppings the Telegraph spews forth.
Interesting thread mate. Charge of the Knights to go on for a little while longer it seems.
PS: MinRep, give us a break man. We have done more than any other ally in this war.
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