Iraqi PM: Basra Strikes A "Success"
No Official End Given For Offensive Against Shiite Militants
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Iraqi woman walks past the demolished car that was destroyed during a bombing and recent clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi government forces backed by the US military in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 1, 2008. (AP Photo/ Karim Kadim)
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Residents check damage to their apartments after a bombing and recent clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi government forces backed by the US military in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Twelve-year-old Haidar Mohammed, foreground, lies in hospital in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 31, 2008. The boy was wounded in clashes Sunday between the Mahdi Army and government forces backed by the American military. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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A Mahdi Army fighter stands next to a burning Iraq armored police vehicle outside a state-run al-Iraqiya TV facility in Basra, Iraq, March 30, 2008. Mahdi Army fighters stormed the facility in the southern city on Sunday, forcing Iraqi military guards surrounding the building to flee, and set armored vehicles on fire. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
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The statement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, stopped short of declaring an end to the offensive as the Shiite leader faced criticism that the government had been unprepared for the ferocious resistance mounted by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Sporadic fighting, meanwhile, continued in Baghdad and Basra despite a tense calm that followed a peace agreement by al-Sadr.
The fighting in the capital and cities to the south has helped make March the deadliest month for Iraqis since last summer, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.
At least 1,247 Iraqis, including civilians and security personnel, had been killed as of Monday, according to figures compiled from police and U.S. military reports. The figure was nearly double the tally for February and the biggest monthly toll since August, when 1,956 people died violently.
Iraqi government figures showed a similar trend, with at least 1,079 people were killed in March - 923 civilians, 156 security forces.
That was an increase from 718 the month before, including 633 civilians and 85 security forces, according to figures compiled from data provided by officials at the health, interior and defense ministries.
Underscoring the fragility of the peace agreement, Harith al-Edhari, the director of al-Sadr's office in Basra, demanded the government stop continuing random raids and detentions.
Al-Edhari's complaint followed a raid by Iraqi commandos on the house of a wanted Mahdi Army battalion leader that prompted clashes in a northern section of the city, although the suspect was not home at the time.
In ordering his militia to stop fighting on Sunday, al-Sadr also demanded concessions from the Iraqi government, including an end to the "illegal raids and arrests" of his followers and the release of all detainees who have not been convicted of any offenses.
U.S. and Iraqi officials insisted the operation was directed at criminals and rogue militiamen - some allegedly linked to Iran - but not against the Sadrist movement, which controls 30 of the 275 seats in the national parliament.
But the fighting mainly involved Mahdi Army fighters, provoking intense anger among al-Sadr's followers.
The agreement - said to have been brokered in Iran - stopped short of disarming the militia and left Iraq's U.S.-backed prime minister politically battered and humbled within his own Shiite power base.
However, al-Maliki insisted in a statement issued by his office that the operation launched a week ago Tuesday had achieved "security, stability and success" in Basra.
He also announced a seven-point plan to stabilize the area, including recruiting 10,000 more police and army forces from local tribes and moving to enhance public services for the embattled population of some 2 million.
Al-Maliki had promised to crush the militias that have effectively ruled Basra for nearly three years. The U.S. military launched air strikes in the city to back the Iraqi effort.
But the ferocious response by the Mahdi Army, including rocket fire on the U.S.-controlled Green Zone and attacks throughout the Shiite south, caught the government by surprise and sent officials scrambling for a way out of the crisis.
The confrontation enabled al-Sadr to show that he remains a powerful force capable of challenging the Iraqi government, the Americans and mainstream Shiite parties that have sought for years to marginalize him. And the outcome cast doubt on President George W. Bush's assessment that the Basra battle was "a defining moment" in the history "of a free Iraq."
With gunmen again off the streets, a round-the-clock curfew imposed in Baghdad last week was lifted at 6 a.m. Monday, except in Sadr City and two other Shiite neighborhoods. Streets of the capital buzzed with traffic and commerce.
Iraqis also cautiously emerged on the streets of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, with peddlers selling fruit from stalls and men cleaning up huge piles of trash from the roadsides.
Women shrouded in black and children also lined up to collect water and food from aid workers after days of curfew.
In other developments:
allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep
together in the war zone - a move aimed at preserving marriages,
boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a
time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years
into the fighting.
© 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 163 CommentsRe: "Iraqi PM: Basra Strikes A "Success"
I get it, Maliki!
April fools!
Good one!
The dumb animals will, come November, elect another candidate to continue the war...just as they elected Nixon who would expand it before bringing it to an unsatisfactory end that could have been achieved years before.
No Official End Given For Offensive Against Shiite Militants
Hahaha.... I have a phrase that might sound familiar. "Mission Accomplished".
It''s totally amazing to me how people buy this line again - and again - and again. It''s sad, really.
Posted by libsrweak at 10:49 AM : Apr 01, 2008
Gee, you sure are smart... just like your leader DOOFUS. I ''ll bet you even voted him not once but twice. Gosh you must be proud to have put a man with his intellect in the White House. Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!
Isreal isn''t helping either, in fact they oppose the training & arming of Iraqi''s military
What you''ve helped create is a Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council instead of a democracy & one friendly to Iran
You don''t talk to any of the troops or the returing vets do you ???
Looks to me like al-Sadr showed who''s running things.
There are now more insurgent groups formed by the Turkman & Sufi Iraqi''s who number close to 3 million --- Not to mention growing Suni conflict in Al Anbar ----------- SNAFU, Situation Normal All F_cked Up
Posted by hillaryin012
hillaryin012,
This is simple tactics. Look at the history of Vietnam. The VC attack, in coordinated efforts, on and off again from 1965-1968 before Tet. It doesn''t win, but creates agitation and unrest with those living there. This lessened support for the US during the war....Then when TET was launched and no-clear victory at hand, the US population also lost its stomach for that war. Point is, this is a tactic that has worked forever. Hit military targets, elicit a response that upsets people everywhere, and then increase your power (through consolidation) by being the "figure" that ended the conflict. Al-Maliki had nothing to do with this and the Iraqi military ONLY succeeded because the US used air power....same as Vietnam, but its only a matter of time until Basra and others fight again. When that comes....is it the "libs" fault or is that just how "it" works in war?
Posted by hillaryin012"
How does having the Sadr Militia end up stronger after a week''s worth of fighting count as a success?
Or are you so desperate to defend anything and everything that Maliki or Bush does/says that you''ve become completely incoherent?
Posted by hillaryin012"
No, I believe it was Nixon who "surrendered".
Although he called it "peace with honor" and "Vietnamization"...
Posted by hillaryin012"
No, I believe it was Nixon who "surrendered".
Although he called it "peace with honor" and "Vietnamization"...
Posted by shingles1 at 02:02 PM : Apr 01, 2008
Very true on Nixon! However, Johnson should not have gone into Vietnam for the same reasons Bush should have avoided Iraq. Coercion of the fabled "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned us of has certainly ringed true!!
AG Mukasey slipped on Wendsday, & proved Bush & Company was even more incompetent before 9/11 --
---- Communication between an Al Queda Saffe House in Afhaganistan was interceptned but they didn''t monoitory it ---- We had the FISA law''s that allowed them to monitor them.
AG Mukasey slipped on Wendsday, & proved Bush & Company was even more incompetent before 9/11 --
---- Communication between an Al Queda Safe House in Afhaganistan & 9/11 terrorists was intercepted but they didn''''t monitor -
--- We had the FISA law''''s that allowed them to monitor those exact communications
Even under the "old" FISA, no warrants are required where the targeted person is outside the U.S. (Afghanistan) and calls into the U.S. Thus, if it''s really true, as Mukasey now claims, that the Bush administration knew about a Terrorist in an Afghan safe house making Terrorist-planning calls into the U.S., then they could have -- and should have -- eavesdropped on that call and didn''t need a warrant to do so.
and right after that McBushCain junior said the same thing,
mission accomplished, can we leave now
Speaking at his old high school he said it gave him a chip on his shoulder & a rambuctious attitude just as Bush had.
Not to mention the fact that the ISI general wired a $100,000 to the head 9-11 patsy, Mohamed Atta. Mukasey was instrumental in the cover-up of the FBI''s role in the ''93 WTC attack...they trained the driver, supplied the fuse and cooked the bomb...they even tried to frame their own inside man who, knowing the character of the human garbage who ran him, recorded them telling him NOT to replace the explosives with a harmless powder...
There''s six Americans murdered by the US secret police and the public did nothing but "oink" and stick their snouts back into the infotainment trough.
If they would tolerate six, why not three thousand...and if they''ll tolerate 3,000, why not 3,000,000...?
They sure do oppose us training & arming Iraq''s army in a big way.
Posted by guadalcanal3 at 02:54 PM : Apr 01, 2008
What are you talking about? We have been supplying Israel with airplanes, weapons, and foreign aid to the tune of roughly $3 billion a year? I do NOT consider that ignoring or just watching.
underdogus,,,,Correction, FallFree1 is Americas enemy number one, j-whitman comes as second place.
Posted by BaghdadsHere at 03:05 PM : Apr 01, 2008
Newsflash!! The guy that bashes others for not serving is now bashing the American Navy!!
They will never challenge facts...just peddle obfuscation and debrication.
--- McCain, flew & participated in missions yes, but he faced no enemy at 10,000 ft,,, He also crashed 5 fighters & surrendered to allow VC propaganda & may have killed over 100 American sailors by starting the fire on the USS Forrestal
Disagreeing with policy is clearly NOT the same thing as not supporting/supporting the troops.
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