BAGHDAD, Dec. 27, 2007
U.S. Launches Deadly Raid On Iraqi Militia
Mahdi Army Group Members Killed, Military Says; Retaliation By Muqtada Al-Sadr Uncertain
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(CBS/AP)
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The military also said Thursday that it captured two suspected extremists they think are linked to the capture of three U.S. soldiers earlier this year.
It was not immediately clear if the U.S. raid on the splinter militia members would impact a six-month freeze on activities that the Mahdi Army leader - radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - called in August and has signaled in the past week he might extend.
In the past, al-Sadr has said that any Mahdi Army members who do not abide by his freeze would no longer be considered members of the militia. But he has also indicated that his fighters have the right to defend themselves if attacked by U.S. forces.
Al-Sadr's order to halt activities has been credited by American commanders as one reason why violence in Iraq has fallen dramatically in the past six months. However, it is unclear how much control al-Sadr maintains over his fighters as groups have splintered from the main movement.
Thursday's fighting took place in the early morning hours in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The officer said eight militia members were killed; the U.S. military said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that it killed an "estimated" 11 fighters. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
In a later statement, the U.S. military said the operation was targeting a suspect who was "reportedly responsible for attacks against Coalition forces."
Troops approaching the target were fired at with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, the military said. They then called in support aircraft. The local police official said at least two U.S. helicopters were used in the attack, along with an unknown number of fighter jets.
The military said no suspects were detained during the raid and that no U.S. troops were killed or wounded.
An official in al-Sadr's office in Kut described the U.S. action as "a criminal and cowardly attack by the Americans. They are trying to provoke people and ruin a stable security situation." He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Despite the its freeze on activities, U.S. commanders have in the past said they would not stop targeting splinter elements of the Mahdi Army that they said continue to operate, despite al-Sadr's order.
In early October, U.S. forces killed 25 Shiite militia fighters in Khalis, north of Baghdad, who were believed to be part of a Mahdi Army splinter group.
In other developments:
Meanwhile, the military said it captured on Monday and Tuesday in Ramadi two suspects linked to the capture of three American soldiers taken during a May ambush near Youssifiyah, about 12 miles south of Baghdad.
The military said one of the suspects is thought to have "facilitated" the kidnapping and to have used his house to hide the soldiers. A weapon belonging to one of the U.S. soldiers was found at the residence of the other suspect.
Spc. Alex R. Jimenez and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty were seized May 12 when insurgents attacked and overran a checkpoint in the volatile area south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death."
A third soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., was also captured during the raid, but his body was found May 23 floating in the Euphrates River. Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier were killed during the ambush.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a front group for al Qaeda, claimed in an Internet video earlier this year that the three missing soldiers were killed and buried. The militants showed images of the military IDs of Jimenez and Fouty but offered no proof that they were dead.
Also Thursday, Sunni and Shiite lawmakers criticized a draft amnesty bill to release Iraqi detainees, saying it does not go far enough to release the innocent and is likely to be shelved when it goes before parliament. The measure was approved by Iraq's Cabinet the day before.
The measure will not be brought to parliament for debate until March at the earliest, said Sami al-Askari a key adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Many key draft laws - including measures to share oil revenue and to allow some members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party to hold government jobs - have remained mired for months in Iraq's gridlocked parliament.
Both the Iraqi government and the U.S. military each hold more than 20,000 prisoners detained since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
Al-Askari, who is a parliament member, said the amnesty would not cover those convicted of terrorism, corruption, crimes against humanity and kidnapping.
The draft will also not involve prisoners being held by American forces, said Sadiq al-Rikabi, another al-Maliki adviser.
It was not clear how many prisoners might be affected by the proposed ban. Al-Askari estimated that "80 percent of those held in Iraqi prisons are there for terrorist crimes, therefore the amnesty would be for a limited number."
Falah Shanshal, a Shiite lawmaker allied to al-Sadr, said the bill was "useless" if it did not include prisoners in U.S. jails in Iraq. "It's not a general amnesty, and it will be useless," he said.
Sunni lawmaker Asmaa Adnan al-Dulaimi of the Iraq Accordance Front, the three-party alliance that has 44 parliamentary seats, told The Associated Press that the law "will hinder the release of many innocents" as it will encounter endless debate in parliament.
"The best thing is to leave this issue to the judicial system because it is the only side who can decide who is innocent and who is not," she said. "The judicial system should review the inmates' files carefully and immediately in order to have them freed and not stranded by the long political discussions."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 88 Comments[Posted by BBrundj at 11:53 PM : Dec 27, 2007]
faith in our leaders? you''re either naive, ignorant, or stupid. they''re all a bunch of liars ... who would appreciate it if everyone would just get in line and accept the status quo.
i can see you feel the same way ... you''re a perfect ''soldier''.
allow me to address this Mahdi militia question.
Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith decided to disband the entire iraqi army (and sunni baathist party), without payment or pensions - their reasoning stemmed from their belief that these iraqi entities were the same as the german nazi party & wehrmacht. Dead wrong zionist neocon thinking.
the power vacuum forced shias to mobilize for their own protection (sunnis had the military weapons)as American forces were too small to cover the whole country.
once a man has a rifle and is protecting his own against rivals or foreigners, he is not going to give it up.
it is way too late for that now - all the poor decisions were taken years ago - and there is no going back.
kill one militia member, another 5 will enlist.
Posted by notblue
i wonder how it feels to live nn a fantasy world....gosh, Taliban "defeated", Afghanistan "liberated".....
why are so many people still dying there and why did bushit say he wants to increase troops there?
fact is bush deserted Afghanistan like he did his unit in the "national guard" - the Taliban were never defeated and back in action everyday.
but that shouldn''t worry you, you''re still dreaming.
.............
You obviously pick and chose the facts you want to believe in, or that agree with your opinion rhs648. All the rest of the facts you don''t agree with or that contrast with you opinion... you just call "propaganda" just to make yourself feel better...
...convincing yourself that you are not a complete fool for ignoring clear (non-partisan) realities that do not fit your political ideology.
But that''s just fine. There are plenty of folks on this board who follow the same wolf-in-sheeps-clothing as you do. At least you just call it "propaganda" as opposed to some other immature, grade-school names.
You know what I mean... when there''s a choice of CNN or FOX News, you chose one and call the other "propaganda". When there''s a choice of newspapers such as New York Times or the New York Post... you chose one, and call the other "propaganda".
If you and "notblue" want to go together off the provebial cliff, that''s fine... more power to ya! But just stay home during the election days so you don''t contribute to taking the rest of America off the cliff with you!
Posted by j-whitman at 05:58 PM : Dec 27, 2007
+ report abuse
*****
does this mean you acknowledge that saddam did have WMD???
Posted by j-whitman at 05:58 PM : Dec 27, 2007
+ report abuse
Posted by notblue
Well said notblue. Your statement applies to many posters on this site. Many are blinded by politics and not realty. In a symposium on George Orwell, a leader of the group overthrowing the communist government in Poland during the 1980''s described how they used propaganda, even when not true, to turn people against the government. Apparently, they felt their goal justified whatever means it took, even putting out lies, intimidating people, and causing public disruptions. It appears some posters on this site would do the same.
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands if not millions of dead men, women, and children, indiscriminent bombing and shooting anything that moves.
How do recognize a terroist in Iraq? Well that would be a person that the Americans had just murdered in the street, oh wait thats a ''suspected terroist''.
And all the torture at abu garabe? who did that?
And all of this was brought to you the faith based bribe of GW Bush
the bribe that bought the mindless christain vote
trhat got him close enough to steal an american election
conservatives are not only un-american but anti-american
a-taliban alive and well and fighting US Canadian and Brit troops in southern Afghanistan
b-democratic election of Hamid Karzai was same as democratic election of Bush: a fraud
c-the Iraqi Kurds gassed in the 80s were gassed with uS chemical weapons from US supplied helocopters with US approval (Bush1 fingerprints at the crime scene)
d- the surge is not working at all. The war has moved to the north (those *** Kurds again!)
e-blame American economic policies such as uncle Milty Friedman who''s policies have been starting wars worldwide since the 50s in the name of privatization and global domination.
f- read a little more than MAD magazine and the comics.
as a sign of good faith, arrest try and publicly hang each and every person, starting at FOX and CNN and working down through Rove, Cheney, Rice Powell, Bush, Rummy and Wolfowitz, responsible for the misdirection and outright lies that precipitated this mess. Practice what you preach.
The world is watching and will approve. With approval will come global understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Then you can move on.
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See all 88 Comments