Can I come in?
Posted on 05/09/2008 9:20:49 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD — Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In return, Sadr's Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government's agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of "medium and heavy weaponry."
The agreement would end six weeks of fighting in the vast Shiite Muslim area that's home to more than 2 million residents and would mark the first time that the area would be under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhoods two major hospitals said.
It also would be a startling turnaround in fortunes for Maliki, who'd been widely criticized for picking a fight with Sadr's forces, first in the southern port city of Basra and then in Sadr City.
Members of Maliki's Dawa Party and the powerful Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq met with Sadr officials on Thursday and Friday to come up with a 14-point agreement to end the weeks of fighting, which has hindered the flow of food and water into Sadr City. The agreement was then passed to Sadr and Maliki for final approval, said Baha al Araji, a Sadrist legislator.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
If it comes down to another Fallujah, this one will be a lot different. The lay out in both are a lot different. Fallujah was made for a siege where one could surround and enter with armor. Sadr city is a bit different based on what I see on sat photos. It is just one big dense pile of dwellings and buildings with little open areas as was found in Fallujah.
They are contained within a walled off compound. Resupply is going to be difficult. As soon as one pops off, he will die.
To engage, they must move. Elsewhere is also pretty much contained.
The bravery will continue as well as the call of duty.
Sadrist bloc buckles, agrees to let Iraqi Army in Sadr City
Includes an interesting item about Iran protesting to Iraq about Iraq backing the UAE claims on Islands in the Hormuz Strait...Iran has held them since the Brits left in 1971.
A bit of cheer video in the middle of gloomy clouds looming on the horizon
Look for an editorial type of “picture in time of Roiling Waters update” being written at AntiMullah.
VIDEO:
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2008/05/preparing-for-war.html
That’s a keeper!
That was great! Thanks for the ping FARS, glad I didn’t miss this.
Something to keep you going while we head for elections.
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2008/05/do-you-really-want-this-mind-set-in.html
Thank you.
That sure tells another side to the story than the McCrackpot version, which (predictably) gives zero credit to the US & Multinational forces.
IF A WAR CRIME WORKS WELL, LET’S DO IT AGAIN:
So while Americans saw stories of rugged "Marlboro Men" winning the day against Satan, they were spared shots of engineers cutting off water and electricity to the city – a flagrant war crime under the Geneva Conventions, as CounterPunch notes, but standard practice throughout the occupation. Nor did pictures of attack helicopters gunning down civilians trying to escape across the Euphrates River – including a family of five – make the TV news, despite the eyewitness account of an AP journalist. Nor were tender American sensibilities subjected to the sight of phosphorous shells bathing enemy fighters – and nearby civilians – with unquenchable chemical fire, literally melting their skin, as the Washington Post reports. Nor did they see the fetus being blown out of the body of Artica Salim when her home was bombed during the "softening-up attacks" that raged relentlessly – and unnoticed – in the closing days of George W. Bush's presidential campaign, the Scotland Sunday Herald reports...
shades of a Jermemiah Wright 'sermon'?
Uhh...The good guys won.
Probably had special training in Russia.
Thanks FARS.
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