Iraqi military continues operations in Basrah

The Long War Journal ^ | 2 Apr 2008 | Bill Roggio

[DJ Elliott]

Three days after Muqtada al Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to withdraw from the fighting in Baghdad and the Shia South, the fighting has dropped dramatically. The Iraqi government has denied that it has agreed to Sadr's terms, but has softened its rhetoric against Mahdi Army, instead shifting its focus on the "criminal elements" just as the US military has done over the past year. Meanwhile, the Iraqi security forces are continuing operations in Basrah.

The Iraqi military has continued to target Mahdi Army elements in Basrah and in Baghdad and southern Iraq, but the government is now referring to them as “criminal elements” and maintains anyone breaking the law will be targeted. “The guarantees for the Sadr Trend and for all Iraqis say that the Iraqi government has law and everyone should abide by the law,” said Dr. Ali al Dabbagh, the spokesman for the Iraqi government in a press briefing on March 31. The Iraqi government “ will not target a certain trend, but will target only the criminals. And this is what the Iraqi government is doing and what it’s committed to do.”

The Iraqi government has now essentially co-opted the same strategy of dealing with the Mahdi Army as the US military instituted in late 2006. The strategy works to divide the Mahdi Army into legitimate actors and criminal groups. This strategy allows for the government to target the illegal elements of the Mahdi Army in raids under the mantle of the law. US and Iraqi security forces have conducted numerous operations against the Special Groups using this method. This has caused schisms inside the Mahdi Army, with some elements breaking off to receive support from Iran and others defying Sadr’s orders to lay down their weapons.

[BIGLOOK]

Maliki ought to replace the local police force with military....sounds like he's doing that. Roundup and disarm anyone packing.

[Eleutheria5]

It’s disturbing to note that the Iraqi government our younguns’ sacrifices helped create is sitting down at the negotiating table with not only Al Sadr, but also Alquds. It was a bad idea when israel started doing that, as history has proven, but at least they held out for half a century. The ink’s barely dry on the Iraqi constitution, and they’re already dealing with terrorists instead of simply dealing death to them.