Sadr pulls fighters off Iraq's streets

Monday 31st March, 07:05 AM JST

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9 Comments

Sarge at 07:20 AM JST - 31st March

"It is a step in the right direction."

Great. Now if Sadr will just turn himself in so he can be tried for his crimes.
Zaphod at 09:55 AM JST - 31st March

Tactical decision, thats all. They are being trounced right now, so he lays low for a while. Anyway, he is studying to become an Ayatollha, so he will come back with much more authority than before. A Shiite muslim will follow his Ayatollha no matter what.
jambon at 02:44 PM JST - 31st March

his has led to a recent campaign to take apart the more troublesome factions. The worst of the lot are in Basra, where Shia militias make a lot of money off the oil and port operations down there. These gangs were getting greedy, and stealing more than the government was willing to tolerate. Thus in the last week, thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers moved into Basra and began arresting members of the Mahdi Army (run by Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr). At the same time, police moved in on Mahdi Army groups in Baghdad. But Basra was where the money was, and the fighting was expected to be long and difficult. On March 26th, the government gave the Mahdi Army three days to surrender, or face some real violence. For some Shia gangsters, this seems to mean American smart bombs. That rumor is all over Basra, and the bad guys are truly scared.

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20080327.aspx
SushiSake2 at 03:39 PM JST - 31st March

Sarge,

Great. Now if Sadr will just turn himself in so he can be tried for his crimes.

Bush needs to do that first and lead by example.
mareo2 at 07:28 PM JST - 31st March

Sadr looks wiser than the others leaders. If Bush and Maliki expected make him look like a mad dog, he really is not following their program. BTW, sounds very stupid surrender all their guns when the US is arming the Sunies and the troops of the gov are under the control of a rival. All of them can end on jail in the blink of an eye. Al-Maliki is just making unreasonable demands and offering nothing in exchange. Oh! I sorry, I forgot, he offer money like Bush to the Sunies. Maybe the Mahdi Army have stronger ideology than the followers of Bush. Like it or not you must to respect them for that.
SuperLib at 10:08 PM JST - 31st March

"Al-Maliki is just making unreasonable demands and offering nothing in exchange."

Looks like Sadr has accepted the terms.
mareo2 at 11:08 PM JST - 31st March

"Al-Sadr's order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence."

He... I guess that for some of you, pull back the troops is equall to give up the guns and surrender. Thats sounds like "mission acoplished" or "these is an undeniable success". But I guess that some cant face reality. On these moment people is negotiating for avoid start a civil war. If Al-Maliki and Sadr can get a deal or not, we dont know. Is better that you people get these in your minds, these is an internal fight betwen Shiites leaders before the elections. Sadr and their followers dont like the US ocupation, but everyones knows that Sadr made a truce for months and he ordered retreat the troops for avoid a civil war, he have more to win with the election. I dont know if he is a good or bad, but sure that he looks better now than US backed Maliki.
jambon at 11:51 PM JST - 31st March

Sadr is a headshot waiting to happen. See Zarkman.
Madverts at 02:35 AM JST - 1st April

jambon, buddy, you've been claiming the US will be snuffing him off as long as you've been saying the Iraqi insurgency is "nearly over".

Heh. That's five long years.