American and Iraqi forces raid Sadr city; Iraq's prime minister disavows attack
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. advisers launched a raid into the capital's Sadr Shiite slum Wednesday trying to capture a top militia commander wanted for running a Shiite death squad. The prime minister disavowed the raid, saying he was not consulted before the attack in which at least four people were killed and 18 wounded.
The Americans said in an announcement that they were looking for a "top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death-squad activity throughout eastern Baghdad."
The military said that Mahdi Army militiamen fought back and the Americans called in an air strike and cordoned the sprawling east Baghdad region.
An angry Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disavowed the raid, which the U.S. military said had been cleared with his government, and demanded an explanation.
"We will ask for clarification to what has happened. . . . We will review this issue with the Multinational Forces so that it will not be repeated," a frustrated al-Maliki said at a news conference.
Several hours later U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that al-Maliki may not have been consulted before the attack on Sadr City.
"We need co-ordinate with him. That makes sense to me. And there's a lot of operations taking place which means sometimes communications are not as good as they should be. And we'll continue to work very closely with the government to make sure communications are solid," Bush said at his own news conference.
Military action against militant militiamen in Sadr City is especially sensitive for al-Maliki, who draws considerable political support from Muqtada al-Sadr whose political organization runs the militia.
The U.S. military has not responded to e-mail requests for further information about the operation and whether the sought after militia figure had been captured or killed.
Well after nightfall, residents said all roads into the region remained blocked by U.S. and Iraqi forces. All cars were being searched by the U.S. soldiers.
A frustrated motorist waiting at one checkpoint jumped out of his car and called for al-Maliki to resign.
"Where is al-Maliki? It would be more honourable for him to resign. Why is he letting the Americans do this to us," the driver could be heard to scream.
Throughout the day and into the night, U.S. F-16 jet fighters growled across the Baghdad sky and at one point the report of tank cannon fire echoed across the city five times in quick succession.
The U.S. military said violence broke out when "Iraqi Army forces came under fire and had to defend themselves. They requested support from coalition aircraft which used precision gunfire only to eliminate the enemy threat," the military statement said.
Since then there has been no update from the U.S. forces, and cellphone service across Baghdad was inexplicably out of service most of Wednesday making contact with Sadr City, in the extreme northeast of Baghdad, impossible.
The casualty figures of four dead and 18 wounded were provided by police Col. Khazim Abbase, and Qassim al-Suwaidi, director of Imam Ali Hospital in the neighbourhood.
Crowds of Shiite men, some carrying pistols and others hoisting giant posters of al-Sadr, swarmed onto the district's streets, chanting, "America has insulted us."
Falah Hassan Shanshal, a legislator from al-Sadr's political bloc, said women and children had been killed, although his claim could not be confirmed.
"The evil powers of the American occupation forces have targeted innocents in Sadr city this morning. They fired bombs at houses that killed innocent women and children," Shanshal said in an interview with the government's al-Iraqiya television station. The Sadr organization controls 30 seats in the 275-seat parliament.
"If there was an arrest operation, it should have been carried out by the Iraqi authorities, and not like this where air cover is used as if we were in a war zone," Shanshal said.
Videotape pictures of the dead bodies from the neighbourhood taken at the local morgue showed only male victims.
Up to now, U.S. and Iraqi forces have largely avoided the densely populated al-Sadr slum, a grid of rutted streets and tumble-down housing that is home to 2.5 million Shiites and under the control of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Reining in the Mahdi Army and the other major militia, the Badr Brigades, remains one of the thorniest problems facing al-Maliki. His fragile Shiite-dominated government derives much of its power from the al-Sadr and the Supreme Council for the Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, which operates the Badr Brigades.
Canada.com
H/T Juan Cole
See, this election is already having effects on the ground in Iraq. The war has become a noose around the administration neck, and all of a sudden they are taking the infinitive and attacking the death squads regardless of what the Iraqi politicians want or don't want. Perhaps offering them some political cover to boot.
The Americans said in an announcement that they were looking for a "top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death-squad activity throughout eastern Baghdad."
The military said that Mahdi Army militiamen fought back and the Americans called in an air strike and cordoned the sprawling east Baghdad region.
An angry Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disavowed the raid, which the U.S. military said had been cleared with his government, and demanded an explanation.
"We will ask for clarification to what has happened. . . . We will review this issue with the Multinational Forces so that it will not be repeated," a frustrated al-Maliki said at a news conference.
Several hours later U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that al-Maliki may not have been consulted before the attack on Sadr City.
"We need co-ordinate with him. That makes sense to me. And there's a lot of operations taking place which means sometimes communications are not as good as they should be. And we'll continue to work very closely with the government to make sure communications are solid," Bush said at his own news conference.
Military action against militant militiamen in Sadr City is especially sensitive for al-Maliki, who draws considerable political support from Muqtada al-Sadr whose political organization runs the militia.
The U.S. military has not responded to e-mail requests for further information about the operation and whether the sought after militia figure had been captured or killed.
Well after nightfall, residents said all roads into the region remained blocked by U.S. and Iraqi forces. All cars were being searched by the U.S. soldiers.
A frustrated motorist waiting at one checkpoint jumped out of his car and called for al-Maliki to resign.
"Where is al-Maliki? It would be more honourable for him to resign. Why is he letting the Americans do this to us," the driver could be heard to scream.
Throughout the day and into the night, U.S. F-16 jet fighters growled across the Baghdad sky and at one point the report of tank cannon fire echoed across the city five times in quick succession.
The U.S. military said violence broke out when "Iraqi Army forces came under fire and had to defend themselves. They requested support from coalition aircraft which used precision gunfire only to eliminate the enemy threat," the military statement said.
Since then there has been no update from the U.S. forces, and cellphone service across Baghdad was inexplicably out of service most of Wednesday making contact with Sadr City, in the extreme northeast of Baghdad, impossible.
The casualty figures of four dead and 18 wounded were provided by police Col. Khazim Abbase, and Qassim al-Suwaidi, director of Imam Ali Hospital in the neighbourhood.
Crowds of Shiite men, some carrying pistols and others hoisting giant posters of al-Sadr, swarmed onto the district's streets, chanting, "America has insulted us."
Falah Hassan Shanshal, a legislator from al-Sadr's political bloc, said women and children had been killed, although his claim could not be confirmed.
"The evil powers of the American occupation forces have targeted innocents in Sadr city this morning. They fired bombs at houses that killed innocent women and children," Shanshal said in an interview with the government's al-Iraqiya television station. The Sadr organization controls 30 seats in the 275-seat parliament.
"If there was an arrest operation, it should have been carried out by the Iraqi authorities, and not like this where air cover is used as if we were in a war zone," Shanshal said.
Videotape pictures of the dead bodies from the neighbourhood taken at the local morgue showed only male victims.
Up to now, U.S. and Iraqi forces have largely avoided the densely populated al-Sadr slum, a grid of rutted streets and tumble-down housing that is home to 2.5 million Shiites and under the control of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Reining in the Mahdi Army and the other major militia, the Badr Brigades, remains one of the thorniest problems facing al-Maliki. His fragile Shiite-dominated government derives much of its power from the al-Sadr and the Supreme Council for the Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, which operates the Badr Brigades.
Canada.com
H/T Juan Cole
See, this election is already having effects on the ground in Iraq. The war has become a noose around the administration neck, and all of a sudden they are taking the infinitive and attacking the death squads regardless of what the Iraqi politicians want or don't want. Perhaps offering them some political cover to boot.
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