Iraqi PM Promises A Fight "Until The End"
Amid Deadly Shiite Clashes, Iraqi Military Imposes Curfew, U.S. Diplomats Ordered To Stay Inside
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Mahdi Army fighters stand in Basra, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2008. (AP Photo)
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a speech that was broadcast on Iraqi state TV that, "We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue until the end." (AP)
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Iraqi Shiite women hold a banner of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and anti-government placards during a protest in the Kazimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2008. (AP)
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A helicopter flies past a column of smoke coming out of the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government offices in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
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Street battles that broke out Tuesday in Basra and Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, shown above, spread to several other neighborhoods and southern cities, leaving nearly 140 dead, including civilians, Iraqi security forces and militants. That two-day figure was a rough estimate provided by police and hospital officials who could not give a more specific breakdown. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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More Bloodshed In Basra
Shiite militiamen continue to clash with Iraqi security forces in the southern oil-hub of Basra. As Lara Logan reports, the city under siege has become a battleground for the U.S. and Iran.
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Green Zone Under Siege
Baghdad's Green Zone is under round-the-clock mortar attack as Iraqi forces battle Shiite militias; and tens of thousands of Iraqi's took to the street protesting Nouri al Maliki. Lara Logan reports.
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Fighting Escalates In Iraq
The heavily-guarded Green Zone is under constant mortar fire as Iranian-backed Shiite fighters clash with U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad, as well as the southern city of Basra. Lara Logan reports.
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Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called Thursday for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mahdi Army militia to halt attacks on the Green Zone or stop fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
In a sign of the deteriorating security, gunmen in Baghdad seized a high-profile government spokesman from his home in a Shiite neighborhood, killing three of his bodyguards and torching his house. In a bid to curb the violence, Iraq's military ordered vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of the capital until Sunday morning.
As Americans and Iraqis scrambled to cope with a newly violent Iraq, the State Department ordered all personnel at the U.S. Embassy not to leave reinforced structures because of continued incoming rocket or mortar fire from suspected Shiite extremists angry over the Basra crackdown.
There's no sign in Basra of the soldiers or police that Iraq's Prime Minister sent to reclaim this important oil-rich city, and residents told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan by phone that Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia now controls several districts.
The campaign to rid Basra of lawless gangs and Shiite militias - some believed tied to nearby Iran - is a major test for al-Maliki, a Shiite, and for the Iraqi military. The ability of Iraqi leaders and security forces to control situations like this one is key to U.S. hopes of withdrawing its forces from the country.
The prime minister put his credibility on the line by flying down to Basra and issuing a weekend deadline for the surrender of Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to al-Sadr. But the militiamen were still controlling Basra's streets Thursday, and the security operation has triggered a violent response among al-Sadr's followers in Baghdad and cities throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.
In the Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, thousands of al-Sadr's followers denounced al-Maliki as a "new dictator" as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the U.S.-backed prime minister. Thousands more also rallied in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district.
"We call on our brothers in the Iraqi army and the brave national police not to be tools of death in the hands of the new dictatorship," a Sadrist member of parliament, Falah Shanshal, said.
However, al-Maliki showed no sign of wavering.
"We have made up our minds to enter this battle, and we will continue until the end. No retreat," al-Maliki told Basra area tribal leaders in a speech broadcast nationwide on Iraqi state TV.
Al-Maliki said Iraq had become a "nation of gangs, militias and outlaws" and he was undertaking a "historic mission" in Basra to restore "the law of the land."
But the Sadrists have been angry over recent raids and detentions, saying U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken advantage of their 7-month-old cease-fire to crack down on the movement.
They have accused rival Shiite parties, which control Iraqi security forces, of engineering the arrests to prevent them from mounting an effective campaign for provincial elections expected this fall. The Sadrists expect to make major electoral gains at the expense of rival parties, including those that maintain close ties to the United States.
American officials have acknowledged that the unilateral cease-fire declared by al-Sadr last August played a major role in reducing violence in Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted that they are not targeting al-Sadr's movement but simply going after renegades, criminals and extremists with ties to Iran.
What U.S. officials won't admit to publicly but say in private, is that this fight has been long in coming because their British allies who had controlled the south, failed to stop Iran themselves, reports Logan.
Fighting raged for a third straight day in Basra, where Iraqis have been of control of security since the British withdrew last December.
Heavy gunfire and explosions resounded across the city while helicopters and jet fighters buzzed overhead. The city's police chief escaped an assassination attempt late Wednesday but three of his guards were killed in the roadside bombing.
Residents contacted by telephone in Basra, the country's oil capital 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, spoke of militiamen using mortar shells, sniper fire, roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades to fight off security forces.
Some complained that thousands of civilians were trapped by the fighting and running short of food, medicine and clean drinking water.
At least 56 people have been killed since Wednesday in Basra, according to police and hospital reports, although a complete and accurate count was impossible to obtain because of the fighting.
In an escalation of the crisis, saboteurs bombed one of Iraq's two main oil export pipelines that carries crude oil from Basra to the country's oil terminal on the Persian Gulf. The attack briefly sent prices rising on international petroleum markets.
In Baghdad, suspected Shiite extremists continued to hammer the U.S.-protected Green Zone on Thursday, firing several rounds of rockets or mortars that sent a huge plume of smoke above the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad.
Also Thursday, a U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bombing in mostly Shiite eastern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. No further details were released.
One American, a government employee, died in Thursday's attacks on the Green Zone, four days after an American financial analyst was mortally wounded there.
A memo sent to embassy staff and obtained by The Associated Press says employees are required to wear helmets and other protective gear if they must venture outside and strongly advises them to sleep in blast-resistant locations instead of trailers that most occupy.
Pentagon officials said Thursday that weapons used in recent Green Zone attacks included 107mm rockets made in Iran. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said some rockets were stamped with 2007 Iranian manufacture dates.
With security in Baghdad rapidly deteriorating, gunmen kidnapped the Iraqi civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security operation and killed three of his bodyguards after torching his house in a Shiite neighborhood.
The spokesman, Tahseen Sheikhly, is a Sunni who often appeared with U.S. military and embassy officials at news conferences to tout the successes of the security operation, which began last year when President Bush sent 30,000 U.S. reinforcements to Baghdad.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 567 CommentsAnd we consider this to be a success?
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Posted by SistaTee at 06:26 AM : Mar 27, 2008
+ report abuse
So just take it huh? Greed and selfish arrogance is NOT the American Way or at least not the America I grew up in. We need a new source of Energy since the criminal we have now as President has left us few options. Sieg Heil Bush
Posted by MCVet
You are right, but unfortunately, so is SistaTee. If gas keeps going up, Americans will be a lot more tolerant of oil wars. And implementing an infrastructure for alternate fuels could take years. It seems that "Mad Max" times, where oil and water are the new gold, are coming soon.
Posted by SistaTee ...that''s right!! also when a loaf of bread hits five bucks....watch your head ....
Stay the course.
Shock and awe.
You''re doin'' a heck of a job.
Mission accomplished.
Looks like the surge was just another escalation. Too many of Bu$h''s friends are making too much money for us to leave any time soon. Their was never an exit plan.
There is however a little recognized exit plan that Al Qaeda designed into this whole booby trap. It''s called total economic collapse. Under Republicon rule, we''ve already borrowed so much money that we have to keep borrowing just to pay the interest.
The U.S. will leave Iraq and the middle east with it''s tail between it''s legs after we''ve spent ourselves into third world status.
Oil money, man. How are we going to get these people to share oil money in a reasonable way?
This has become a conflict exactly like the ones Africa has been suffering for decades where rival groups fight each other for control of natural resources.
If it''s OK to stay in the middle of this conflict in Iraq why not go ahead and send US troops to Africa and see if we can get them to stop fighting between themselves?
It doesn''t make sense, does it? Well, staying in Iraq one more day makes as much sense.
Iraq, in any event, has already fallen on the "wrong hands". Compare how the president of Iran wa received recently with a red carpet and all kinds of parties and celebrations to how Bush has to hide from everyone and travel in the middle of the night protected by thousands of US troops when he goes there.
How can Americans keep fooling themselves like this???
HEY ! HAVE YOU HEARD?
BARACK HUSSEIN "BARRY" OBAMA, IS RELATED TO BUSH.
NOW WE KNOW HOW THE BUSH CLAN (OOPS SHOULDN''T SAY CLAN) PLANS TO HAVE A THIRD TERM OF BUSH POLICIES. THEY HAVE THEIR CUS, BARRY READY AND WAITING.
GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT " G D AMERICA."
crater7
I''m sorry that you are a moron.
-that means they could touch the HUGE Ambassy we built in Baghdad?
underdogus
Maybe one day you''ll turn from the darkside and defend your countries interests rather than the failed policies of a failed President.
Posted by omnibus66
Isn''t that just like a Democrat. Not a word of anger toward their friends the Al Aqeda terrorists doing the murdering. Just excuses and hate for Bush and anything America does. And when OBAMA was asked why so many troops want to finish the job in IRAQ, he said they were just mis-guided, (i.e stupid). The troops just love the Democrat support like recruiters getting kicked off College Campuses all over America and Marines in California being banned from entering towns. Yes, Democrats support the troops alright. IRAN, Al Qaeda and Democrats support the The Mahdi Army.
underdogus
I sold my SUV when we invaded Iraq. I knew then that the invasion and ensuing chaos in the middle east would cause the price of gas would skyrocket.
You find those WMD''s yet?
No?
Keep looking.
lol!
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Posted by underdogus at 08:19 AM : Mar 27, 2008
+ report abuse
LOL Yep and then there are Bootlickers, who swallow 935 LIES taking us into a war we did NOT have to fight, killing 4000 of our finest. A War that we were told would take 6 months and is now entering it''s SIXTH year. A war costing us 28 BILLION Dollars a month when we were told it would cost us NOTHING. Now that I look at this mess and the results of it, where do YOU freaky Nazi''s find ANY success. There MUST be success for any set backs to take place you know! Sieg Heil Bush! Come on now let people know you care more for your Party than you do your Country! Sing it out!! SIEG HEIL MEIN FUHRER!! Good Bootlickers!! ROFLMAO
demslie
We believe that Bush should be held responsible for his lies, incompetence and total failures. You spend all of your energy making excuses for him. Maybe one day you''ll defend the interests of your country rather than the failed policies of a failed President.
I''m sorry that you are a moron.
lol!
What a joke!
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Posted by demslie at 08:28 AM : Mar 27, 2008
+ report abuse
Duh?? Typical Fascist.... can''t read and understand the story let alone who is fighting who! IT''s A CIVIL WAR YOU PATHETIC BOOTLICKER. There are different factions of the PEOPLE of IRAQ fighting each other. The rest of it like the war itself is a LIE! God but you nazi''s are stupid!! Sieg Heil Bush
Posted by demslie at 08:28 AM : Mar 27, 2008
Obama understands as much as you obviously do not, that demonization of the enemy is part and parcel of the military experience. Daily psychological conditioning hardly makes one objective. It has nothing to do with stupidity.
If you dont then please send your children and yourself to Baghdad and kill those Iraqiis who will not obey or go along. Put your body where your right wing mouth is and stop playing the safe at home patriot willing to send other American''s sons and now even our daughters to die in a war built on a lie. How does it feel to know that the world views bush supporters as stupid and fascist as does an awakened 65% of America. Enough of this stupid war and the waste in blood and treasure. BUSH WAS A MISTAKE AND SO IS THIS BLOODY PHONY WAR.
"you know what? i am tired of you whiners!! there are setbacks in everything!! in life you are going to take some hits once in awhile!! you either take the hits and move on or cower down and *** and moan like you losers do!! grow a pair ken you are the biggest baby on here!! in a war you have to take some hits, thats all this is....it is a matter of how our great country responds to it!! hopefully we dont respond like the whiny losers on here like you!!!"
So, let me guess this right.
You''re sick of people whining, so, you come on here and have a whine.
Hmmm - do you know what irony is?
Regardless, how long do you think it''s going to take for GW Bush to get it right?
1 year? Sorry, that''s passed.
2 years? Nope, that''s passed as well.
3 years? Gee, I wish I had some better news for you.
4 years? Gee whiz, still not there yet.
5 years? Not looking good, I''m afraid.
50 years? It''s looking that way.
100 years? Is my name John McCain?
HEY ! SING(ME-A-SONG)INGRICK, THANKS FOR YOUR ENDORSEMENT. COMMING FROM YOU, THIS RINGING ENDORSEMENT IS LIKE ALL YOUR, (LET''S SAY,) REFRESHING COMMENTS. IT''S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO RECIEVE. THANKS AGAIN.
BY THE WAY, WHICH PART OF MY COMMENT DO YOU LIKE BEST? I BET IT''S THE ONE ABOUT YOUR HERO''S CUS, BARACK HUSSEIN BARRY OBAMA.
GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT "G D" AMERICA.
Why did Republicans do that?
"you know what? i am tired of you whiners!! there are setbacks in everything!! in life you are going to take some hits once in awhile!! you either take the hits and move on or cower down and *** and moan like you losers do!! grow a pair ken you are the biggest baby on here!!
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talk about sounding like a baby... listen here you moron, your man bush has caused this failure and you support him. HOW DARE YOU GET ANGRY! 4000 troops have died and millions of Iraqis, and YOU get pis*sed?! the he*ll with you and everyone like you. you and your party scr*ew things up and then get angry when people give you sh*t for it.
"you know what? i am tired of you whiners!! there are setbacks in everything!! in life you are going to take some hits once in awhile!! you either take the hits and move on or cower down and *** and moan like you losers do!! grow a pair ken you are the biggest baby on here!!
I am tired of Republicans making US policies based on book of revelation!
I am sick and tired of Republicans sacrifising GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN MONEY, AMERICAN LIVES and UNHOLY LAND "UNITED STATES" for a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN GOD-CHOSEN PEOPLE and a NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND!
Why didn''t bush send enough troops in Afghanistan to capture OSMA BEEN FORGOTTEN?
Because Afghanistan is not one of those regions called "PROMISED LAND" in the book of lies and contradictions named "BIBLE"!!
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i hope its alternative energy. we really don''t need oil or coal. the technology is here right now for us to switch to other sources of energy (green sources) that will not only get us off our dependence on middle-eastern countries, but help reverse global warming AND boost our economy.
Posted by tulcak at 08:55 AM : Mar 27, 2008
Whatever technology we use, won''t be equivalent to OIL for our SUVs and trucks on the long distance highways of America!!!
Why shouldn''t we help Arabs in the destruction of Israel of Palestinian map, far away from the CONCENTRATION CAMPS in Germany to enjoy oil in cheaper prices?
Why should we protect a NON-AMERICAN LAND, for NON-AMERICAN PEOPLE to buy HATRED, TERRORISM and 9/11 against our nation?
Because CHRISTIANITY is PSYCHOSIS and CHRISTIANS are PSYCHOTICS!!!
We need separation of CHURCH and STATE, and kicking all the RELIGIONS out of our politics for the survival of the United States.
Posted by zoe2006 at 09:02 AM : Mar 27, 2008
You should watch the speeches of Bush and McCain''s supporter "John Hagee".
After watching his and other Evangelist christians'' speeches, I came to the conclusion that it wasn''t oil but the 2nd coming of Christ and the Battle of Armagaddon, the main reasons for Iraq invasion.
For people like Cheney, it wasn''t the reason though. Cheney cared of making as much money as possible by *** America and Americans.
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Posted by zoe2006 at 09:06 AM : Mar 27, 2008
Totally agree with you. That''s why we have more Radical Religious fanatics in those states where people have lesser understanding of cultures outside their farms.
Posted by demslie at 08:28 AM : Mar 27, 2008
Lets see--we have 31,000 troops in Afganistan and over 100,000 in Iraq and we''re currently bombing Pakistan--what the heII are we doing bombing Pakistan?? What''s next? The world?
Sorry--we have become the terrorists we''re fighting!!
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Posted by underdogus at 09:10 AM : Mar 27, 2008
Hamas is democratically elected. Should we support Hamas too. On all cost? You mean on the cost of American money and American lives?
If you want to sacrifise American money and American lives for a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN LAND, and NON-AMERICAN PEOPLE CHOSEN by a RACIST, UNJUST ANTI-AMERICAN GOD, you are a traitor just like that god who racially discriminated against Americans by not promising them a single penny while promising NON-AMERICANS a land in the Middle East.
We need separation of CHURCH and STATE Posted by patriotic9 ..go for it SEPARATE, move to an ISLAMIC STATE B.ASTARD!!
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NO, YOU move. This is America where freedom and democracy mean something, and you can only have these with separation of church and state... let''s see.... Iran and Saudi Arabia both have governments where there is no separation of church and state... so, in effect, you are saying we should be like them?
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