Desperate Mahdi Army Renegades Start New Baghdad Terror Campain
How Petraeus doesn’t have an ulcer by now is a testament to his character.
BAGHDAD, March 24 - Members of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia appeared in a show of force in a number of Baghdad neighbourhoods on Monday and forced shop owners to close, witnesses said.
Witnesses and Interior Ministry officials said Mehdi Army fighters spread through five districts in southern and western Bagdad, ordering shop owners to close.
In one neighbourhood, they closed the roads with flaming tires. Witnesses said the militia had declared the start of a civil disobedience campaign.
There were no reports of any clashes with Iraqi or U.S. forces, but residents said the situation was very tense.
In at least one of the districts, southern Bayaa, witnesses said the Mehdi Army fighters were walking about unarmed, although guns could be seen in their vehicles.
An official in Sadr’s office in one of the districts told Reuters that the Mehdi Army fighters were protesting against “U.S. raids and the arrests of innocent people”. The militia has kept a low profile since Sadr called a ceasefire last August and extended it last month, a move U.S. commanders say has helped to sharply reduce sectarian violence between Iraq’s majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Muslims.
But gunbattles in Baghdad and the southern city of Kut last week have raised fears that it may be unravelling at a time when the U.S. military is withdrawing 20,000 troops.
Mehdi Army fighters, however, have complained that U.S. and Iraqi forces have exploited the truce to carry out indiscriminate arrests. U.S. commanders say they only target Mehdi Army cells that have ignored Sadr’s ceasefire order.
“This does not mean the ceasefire is over. Such a decision is for Moqtada al-Sadr to take,” Nassar al-Rubaie, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament, told Reuters, referring to the disobedience campaign.
On Sunday, the head of Sadr’s office in northern Shula district gave the Iraqi government 24 hours to stop “all detention operations” and to release all Sadrists in detention.
“PROTESTS TO CONTINUE”
“U.S. forces mistakenly thought that the extension of the truce was a sign of weakness of the Mehdi Army. That is not true, they are still strong, but we are obeying the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr,” Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sabihawi, an official in Sadr’s office in Baghdad’s Amil district, said on Monday.
“We will continue the protests until the arrests stop,” he said.
Interior Ministry officials said Mehdi Army fighters had appeared on the streets of al-Ilaam, Shurta, Bayaa and Amil districts in southern Baghdad and in Washash in the western section of the capital in an apparently co-ordinated action.
“They forced shop owners to close, saying they were calling for civil disobedience. The situation is very tense. There are rumours that the situation is going to deteriorate,” said Abu Adel, 55, a civil servant, and a resident of al-Ilaam district.
Adel Alwan, a resident of Amil district, said shops had also been closed in his area and Mehdi Army gunmen could be seen standing on street corners.
“I left the street and went back to my house and locked the door. I am anticipating the Americans will come and clash with them,” he told Reuters.
(Reuters)
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“Skin that smokewagon and see what it gets ya….”
March 24th, 2008 at 6:19 pm“Ya just gonna stand there and bleed?”
Time to pop Mookie…where is that little bastard…Still hangin’ in Iran?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pmThought the toothless bastard told them to stand down …
March 24th, 2008 at 6:28 pmI’ve asked this damn question so many times…why is he still alive?!?!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:33 pmMookie is probably taking his marching orders from Iran. Time to smoke these bastards. If we leave now, this punk and his insane militia will reek havoc on Baghdad and southern Iraq. Let’s kill his ass and be done with it…or turn the Sunnis on his ass.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:33 pm“Thought the toothless bastard told them to stand down …”
Guess that goes to show you how relevant he’s become…
March 24th, 2008 at 7:13 pmNow is the time to strike. Strike them hard and eliminate them once and for all.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pmI wonder how much shit Mookie will stir up prior to the Demorats convention? Next time these pricks get together to wave their RPGs and AKs in the streets, all UAVs should unload their payloads!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:54 pmUncle Mookie needs to go! ASAP isn’t soon enough. Enough is enough already.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:14 pmWhy can’t these people just learn to get drunk and piss in the streets like normal people?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pmThese people are nuts. It just shows that they don’t care about Iraq, they don’t care about their fellow Iraqis, they don’t care about anything but power. It’s really sad. I think the troops care more about succeeding and securing Iraq than most Iraqis. It’s just so frustrating.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pmThere is a big disconnect between the average Iraqi and the members/leaders of these sectarian groups. Why don’t average Iraqi’s take ep arms against these people? They’ve been living under 30 years of totalitarianism where being outspoken got your sons ghosted and the older men in your family got lined up and shot. Why don’t they join the opposition group? The opposition group is just as bad as Mehdi if not worse when it comes to violence and sectarianism.
Yes Mookie needs to be taken out. Shoulda been 4 years ago but Bremner, the UN and the State Dept. stopped the Army because they were more worried about the elections than they were security and the future. Now, we can’t do it until we identify the mid-level leadership and already have the mechanisms in place to fill the Mookie void the day he disappears. Otherwise we’ll have anarchy in the south with a break-out of violence across the country that would threaten to spill outside the borders of Iraq.
Our guys are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to the choices of previous leadership but they still got to get something done and fast. Everyday those guys are left intact our guys loose credibility and influence right alongside the Iraqi govt. I mean, just look at Hizbullah and Lebanon.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:33 amOne thing is clear……….Muslims kill Muslims to the glory of their God.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:46 amMookie is irrelevant. There is now on legitimate face for the Sadr movement. They are hated by most Iraqis. They will suffer at the ballot box in the next election. There is nothing standing in the way of the complete military destruction of the Mahdi army and their Iranian pay master. Kill them all.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:03 amThis Sadr towel-headed bed-sheeter should have been taken out a long time ago. Ya I know, 50-50 hindsight, but he is as slimy as they come. Still time to wack him.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:45 amStrike first strike hard no mercy, sir
March 25th, 2008 at 12:36 pm