Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next >  [ show all ]
OfflineMadtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
 User Gallery


Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army?
    #8047109 - 02/20/08 12:33 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

Needless to say, this will be bad. Despite what all the Republican morons here will tell you, their patented "surge" is not what has led to vast improvements seen recently in Iraq. These gains in civilian security have been mostly due to the fact that some of the major insurgent groups have stopped actively fighting and in many cases have switched sides and are now helping our troops.

Al-Sadr is a fucking thug, and we should have killed him when we had the chance. If he goes back on this things are going to get very bloody in Baghdad again very soon. And make no mistake; he will go back on his promise if there is the slightest bit of political gain to be had no matter how many hundreds or thousands of his fighters get killed. He doesn't care one lick about any of his fighters and will be happy to sacrifice them to Allah via the US Army if he can gain an advantage from it.

Quote:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/20/iraq.main/

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Mehdi Army cease-fire that has been credited with helping to reduce violence in Iraq since August could end soon, a spokesman for the radical cleric who heads the Shiite militia said Wednesday.

If Muqtada al-Sadr doesn't issue a statement by Saturday extending the cease-fire, the freeze will be over Sunday, said Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for the cleric.

Speaking from Najaf, the Shiite holy city in southern Iraq, al-Obeidi said the message has been conveyed to Mehdi Army members across the war-ravaged nation.

Although the U.S. military has not had contact with al-Sadr, it is encouraging the cleric to continue the cease-fire, saying it would be "a productive and positive step" in rebuilding Iraq, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

News of al-Sadr's impending directive came as Smith expressed concern that Shiite militants from the Iranian-backed Special Groups had staged deadly attacks in Baghdad this week.

On August 28, al-Sadr called for a temporary suspension of Mehdi Army activity, including attacks on police and rival factions. At the time, he said the six-month suspension would allow his militia to be restructured.

The cease-fire followed bloody battles between al-Sadr's militia and fighters from the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the rival Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. More than 50 people were killed and scores were injured in the skirmishes in Karbala, Baghdad and Babil province.

Days later, the U.S. military applauded al-Sadr's mandate, saying it would allow coalition forces to focus on al Qaeda in Iraq "without distraction from [Mehdi Army] attacks."

In October, al-Sadr and al-Hakim forged a truce in the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan, when gestures of mercy and forgiveness are common, a SICI spokesman said.

Al-Sadr called for calm, banned further fighting and urged his militia members to guard SICI officials and offices in Iraq, an al-Sadr aide said at the time.

Civilian and military deaths began to decline after the August cease-fire. The U.S. military said al-Sadr's mandate -- along with an increase in U.S. troops and the emergence of Concerned Local Citizens security volunteers -- helped curb the violence.

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq has said al-Sadr may have called the cease-fire to avoid alienation in Iraq. The cleric may have reasoned that his militia's activities could have prompted Iraqis to shun the Mehdi Army "in the same way that they rejected al Qaeda in Iraq," said Gen. David Petraeus.

The U.S. military maintained Wednesday that the cease-fire has helped reduce assassinations and Shiite infighting in Baghdad and the southern Shiite heartland.

The "cease-fire has been helpful in reducing violence and has led to improved security in Iraq," Smith said in a news conference. "We would welcome the extension of the cease-fire as a positive step by the [Sadrist movement] to continue its support of rebuilding the new Iraq."

Smith said the Sadrist movement has demonstrated in recent weeks that it "completely supports rebuilding the new Iraq in a peaceful and democratic way and that the extension of a cease-fire would be a productive and positive step in that direction."

Despite the positive trends attributed to the cease-fire, some Shiite militants -- who analysts believe may be more radical than al-Sadr -- have ignored the cease-fire.

Five people were killed and 16 others wounded in an attack on Monday at the Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said.

Another attack Tuesday in the Rustumiya neighborhood killed a U.S. civilian and wounded several others, Smith said.

Also Tuesday, at least 15 police officers were killed and 27 others wounded at a U.S. military outpost in Baghdad when police tried to defuse unused rockets found in a truck.

Investigators determined the attackers were Shiite militants belonging to the Special Groups, who apparently had Iranian backing judging from intelligence gathered from people arrested after the incident, Smith said. The admiral added that the rockets used were "signature Iranian-based weapons."

The militants "obviously are sending the message that they do not support peaceful transition in Iraq, that their way forward will involve violence," Smith said.

The U.S. and Iran, longtime adversaries with no real diplomatic ties, have engaged in talks to address the violence. The talks have been hosted by the Iraqi government.

The U.S. military will await al-Sadr's weekend decision before enacting a contingency plan.

"The cease-fire remains in place and we would hope and expect it would continue," Smith said.




--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinezappaisgod
horrid asshole


Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8047318 - 02/20/08 01:28 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

We'll see. I don't think he has the chops anymore.


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflinePhred
Fred's son
Male

Registered: 10/18/00
Posts: 12,949
Loc: Dominican Republic
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: zappaisgod]
    #8048124 - 02/20/08 04:36 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

Agreed. He outmaneuvered himself long ago. He no longer has any relevance to the Iraqi situation.




Phred


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleSlashOZ
:D
Male


Registered: 10/20/06
Posts: 3,557
Loc: Following the water cycle
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Phred]
    #8048163 - 02/20/08 04:44 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

who knows, maybe at some point these idiots finally realized beating us in Iraq was a pipe-dream and gave us a cease-fire. i highly doubt our military and liberal media would have been hailing the surge as a success if the reduction in violence came from a cease-fire with al-sadr instead of a the troops.


--------------------
"Life sucks but in this really beautiful way" - Axl Rose
"Life's a bitch and then you die that's why we get high cuz you never know when you're gonna go." - NAS
"When people don't know what you're about they put you down and shut you out" - Black Sabbath
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Gandhi
"Look up at me I am God, look down on me and I am evil, look at me I am you." - Charles Manson.
"Don't question my reality." - Me (as far as I know)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblekake
The answer to1984 is 1776.
Male User Gallery


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 05/06/99
Posts: 2,782
Loc: The 66th harmonic
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8049219 - 02/20/08 08:57 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

What are you talking about? The enemy is in it's last throes, didn't you know? Our boys are coming home, any day now... any day...


--------------------
The answer to 1984 is 1776.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblegettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Female User Gallery

Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: SlashOZ]
    #8049279 - 02/20/08 09:08 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

Gave us a cease fire? I thought some/most of it was a part of the "buying allies deal" where insurgents have been being paid $10 a day to hold their fire.

Are these things related?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543



Creating a New Force

Some 70,000 former insurgents are now being paid $10 a day by the U.S. military. It costs about a quarter billion dollars a year.

It's a controversial strategy, and Macgregor warns that it's creating a parallel military force in Iraq that is made up almost entirely of Sunni Muslims.

"We need to understand that buying off your enemy is a good short-term solution to gain a respite from violence," he says, "but it's not a long-term solution to creating a legitimate political order inside a country that, quite frankly, is recovering from the worst sort of civil war."

That civil war has subsided, for now. It's diminished because of massive, internal migration, a movement of populations that has created de-facto ethnic cantons.

"Segregation works is effectively what the U.S. military is telling you," Macgregor says. "We have facilitated, whether on purpose or inadvertently, the division of the country. We are capitalizing on that now, and we are creating new militias out of Sunni insurgents. We're calling them concerned citizens and guardians. These people are not our friends, they do not like us, they do not want us in the country. Their goal is unchanged."

Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran and a former administration adviser, articulates a view that is privately shared by several former and current officers. It's not that they believe the plan isn't working. It's that they see it as a dangerous one with potentially destructive consequences.

But McCaffrey argues that at $10 a day, the gamble is worth taking.

"We can pay them that for 10 years if we had to," he says. "Better we provide an infusion of cash where we're keeping a local night watchman for us on duty than we conduct combat operation. Money isn't even a factor we ought to take into account."

A Temporary Freeze

Macgregor says that people are desperate for success.

"They want to believe that we have done something positive for the population of Iraq. That we are helping them to become something positive," he says. "The thing that worries me most of all is what happens over the next 12 to 24 months in Iraq. Could we not have made matters worse in the long term? Are we not actually setting Iraq up for a worse civil war than the one we have already seen?"

Iraq can be seen as a conflict temporarily frozen.

The largest Shiite militia group has temporarily sworn-off attacking both the U.S. military and Sunni Muslims. Sunni groups are, for the time being, allying themselves with the United States for a fee. And in the north, Kurdish militants are focused on Turkey rather than Iraq. It is a waiting game.

And still, quietly, each group builds its own armory, preparing for the inevitability of fighting another day.


--------------------
Ahuwale ka nane huna.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineCoaster
Baʿal
Male User Gallery


Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 5 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: gettinjiggywithit]
    #8049294 - 02/20/08 09:12 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

dood if i was in iraq id stop the cease fire too
as long as americans are displacing hundreds of thousands of iraqis and killing thousands of iraqi civilians than thats the way its gotta be.


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblekake
The answer to1984 is 1776.
Male User Gallery


Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 05/06/99
Posts: 2,782
Loc: The 66th harmonic
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Coaster]
    #8049311 - 02/20/08 09:15 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

paying them not to fight?  isn't that kind of like giving up/admitting defeat?

that's akin to a bully accepting payment to not beat the shit out of you.  we're betting that the bully is gonna have a change of heart before we run out of money?

yeah... this strategy is smart.  :rolleyes:


--------------------
The answer to 1984 is 1776.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineCoaster
Baʿal
Male User Gallery


Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 5 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: kake]
    #8049350 - 02/20/08 09:20 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

all of their strategies are really immature
like cutting off all supplies to iraq (sanctions)
so we cripple their standard of living
they thought that by making the civialians live horrible lives brought on by sanctions than they would overthrow sadaam themselves
fucking so stupid everything those people up in DC think of
they need to smoke some weed and think outside the box and more peace not war


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblegettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Female User Gallery

Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: kake]
    #8049392 - 02/20/08 09:26 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

Don't forget the other key part to this strategy. We are giving the enemy  $250,000,000. a year to buy weapons with to use against us at a later date. :thumbup:


--------------------
Ahuwale ka nane huna.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineCoaster
Baʿal
Male User Gallery


Registered: 05/22/06
Posts: 33,501
Loc: Deep in the Valley
Last seen: 12 years, 5 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: gettinjiggywithit]
    #8049670 - 02/20/08 10:13 PM (16 years, 1 month ago)

o ya of course how could i 4get that
i remeber america sold some f-14's to like russia or something then they sold it to 1 of our enemies ahahahahahah
y would we ever sell our planes that is so fucking stupid cuz a country can become our enemy at the drop of a hat


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineThe_Red_Crayon
Exposer of Truth
Male User Gallery

Registered: 08/13/03
Posts: 13,673
Loc: Smokey Mtns. TN Flag
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: zappaisgod]
    #8050212 - 02/21/08 12:15 AM (16 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

zappaisgod said:
We'll see. I don't think he has the chops anymore.




Hardly,His party holds a lot of seats in Iraqi paralaiment, almost as large as the SCIRI or Dawa, the violence by shiite groups is led by splinter groups of the mehdi army. Since the 2004 Najaf uprisings and ceasefire he's armed up extensively taking over most roles of the Iraqi Police and placing his men in the interior ministry.

He's also expanded his clout in Iran who backs his militia with large amounts of weapons and money. He is a potent fighting force, more so then any Sunni militia.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflinePhred
Fred's son
Male

Registered: 10/18/00
Posts: 12,949
Loc: Dominican Republic
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: The_Red_Crayon]
    #8050549 - 02/21/08 05:47 AM (16 years, 30 days ago)

Quote:

He is a potent fighting force, more so then any Sunni militia.




He was a potent fighting force. But as zappaisgod pointed out, he screwed himself. Fleeing to Iran to hide out didn't gain him any prestige, either. Quite the reverse.

I agree pretty much with what this guy has to say about good old Mookie --

Quote:

If al-Sadr is stupid enough to once again engage the American military, there will be a lot of dead militia men - and probably civilians and US soldiers as well - that he will have to answer for.

The fact is, Mookie is in a bind of his own making. He has withdrawn his ministers and members of parliament from the government hoping that it would collapse and that he could move in and pick up the pieces. That didn't happen and, in fact, his move had the opposite effect. Al-Sadr was an obstacle to reconciliation and since his departure, the parliament has passed several necessary measures to get the healing process underway.

But Mookie still wants to be a player. The question he is asking himself: can he be more influential in government or outside of it leading a hopeless insurgency against the US and Iraqi army. Much has changed in the 6 months since he initiated the face saving cease fire - knowing full well that he and his militia would have been the number one target of the surge if he had resisted. It remains to be seen whether al-Sadr feels he has no choice but confrontation given the fact that he has lost a considerable amount of influence as a result of his being out of government.




http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/02/trouble_brewing_in_iraq.html

Of course, this guy has demonstrated repeatedly he's not the brightest bulb in the string, so he may decide to fight anyway. Or his Iranian masters may insist on it.

But his "clout" ain't what it used to be. Even if he does call for a resumption of violence, a lot of his ex-followers may ignore him.




Phred


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinelonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Phred]
    #8051600 - 02/21/08 12:06 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

"Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is expected to extend a six-month ceasefire by his Mehdi Army militia, two senior officials in his movement confirmed for the first time on Thursday."

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/02/21/report-sadr-likely-to-extend-ceasefire-with-us-by-another-six-months/

wimp


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineMadtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
 User Gallery


Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: lonestar2004]
    #8051626 - 02/21/08 12:12 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

Good news.


--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinelonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8051641 - 02/21/08 12:15 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

yep, did u see my post about the Serbs?

not good news....


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineMadtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
 User Gallery


Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: lonestar2004]
    #8051651 - 02/21/08 12:19 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

I didn't read your post, but I'm watching the videos on CNN right now.

It looks pretty bad, but I think as long as the Serbs stay mad at the US and don't start slaughtering Albanians again everything is okay.

But if people start killing each other again...


--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinelonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8051664 - 02/21/08 12:27 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

isn't this the area where one of the world wars started?


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineMadtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
 User Gallery


Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: lonestar2004]
    #8051666 - 02/21/08 12:29 PM (16 years, 30 days ago)

Yah, the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was carried out by Serbs in Sarajevo.

Mebbe it was 1913.

One of the two, and I don't care enough to look.


--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineMadtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
 User Gallery


Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
Re: Biggest Insurgent Group In Iraq To End Cease-Fire w/ US Army? [Re: Madtowntripper]
    #8197363 - 03/26/08 04:32 PM (15 years, 11 months ago)

Bump for new developments about a month later. Armed fighting is reported between Al-Sadr's thugs and the Iraqi Security Forces in parts of Baghdad today. Maliki, the Iraqi PM had put out a 72-hour deadline yesterday for the militias to put down their weapons.

We'll see if they comply. What a fucking moron this guy is and all of his followers as well.

Here's the CNN link and story.

Quote:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Clashes between Iraqi security forces and militia fighters spread across southern Iraq's Shiite heartland Wednesday, with the death toll rising past 100 after two days of fighting.

Fighting spread from the key oil city of Basra and parts of Baghdad to other predominantly Shiite cities.

Iraq's prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as the fighting threatened to unravel a delicate cease-fire.

Officials say between 40 and 50 people have died in the southern city of Basra and at least 22 have been killed in Baghdad in fighting that has its roots in intra-Shiite rivalries and turf wars in southern Iraq and Baghdad.

A few hundred people have been wounded in the fighting, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has announced that it is providing supplies to hospitals in Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City to help treat them.

Fighting also broke out in Diwaniya and Kut, predominantly Shiite provincial capitals south of Baghdad. At least 35 people have died in Kut, an official with the Interior Ministry told CNN, and one person was killed and four were wounded in Diwaniya.

Police and militia fighters clashed in three neighborhoods in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad. At least three Iraqi police officers were wounded and 30 "outlaws" arrested, a Karbala police official told CNN.

Col. Bill Buckner characterized the operation in Basra targeting fighters as "an Iraqi-planned, -led and -executed mission at the direction of the Iraqi prime minister." Video Watch a gun battle in Basra »

He said coalition troops "are providing tactical over-watch with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and support aircraft." British forces, based outside the city of Basra, are also assisting Iraqi troops with surveillance.

An official with police in Hilla said at least nine people were killed and 23 wounded Wednesday during clashes between militants and Iraqi police in neighborhoods around the city and in a U.S. air strike that killed four.

The U.S. command in Baghdad said strike was launched at the request of a Hilla police SWAT team.

Iraqi authorities -- who called Wednesday's violence "sporadic" -- said the fighting is occurring in strongholds of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadrand his Mehdi Army militia. And, they say, Iraqi and U.S. forces have squared off with fighters who support the hard-line, anti-American cleric.

The U.S. military emphasizes that troops are taking on "outlaws" or "rogue" militia members and are not targeting members affiliated with al-Sadr. Video Watch markets smolder from latest violence ».

The upsurge in violence has serious implications for stability in Iraq.

It threatens to unravel a seven-month-long suspension of Mehdi Army activities, a much-praised cease-fire called by al-Sadr that the U.S. military says has decreased violence across the country.

A breakdown of the cease-fire and a renewal of street violence could affect U.S. military plans to withdraw and redeploy troops.

Growing tension between the Sadrist movement and Iraqi authorities boiled over in recent weeks, with Sadrists saying they have been unfairly targeted and detained in U.S. and Iraqi raids.

The operation in Basra is being led by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and his resolve has garnered praise from U.S. officials.

Al-Maliki has given militants there a 72-hour ultimatum to surrender their weapons and a curfew has been imposed. The tensions in Basra stem from the jockeying for power among the Sadrists, the Fadhila party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the operation is targeting the "the lawlessness that has been going on under religious or political cover, along with smuggling of oil, weapons, and drugs."

"These outlaws found support from inside government institutions, either willingly or by coercion, turning Basra into a place where citizens struggle to feel secure for their lives and property," Bergner said.

Sheikh Salah al-Obaidi, an aide to al-Sadr in Najaf, said the cleric has called on al-Maliki to leave Basra and let tribal leaders and political parties resolve the security problems through peaceful dialogue.

In Washington, White House Deputy Secretary Tony Fratto told reporters that the operation "is exactly what we all want to see -- which is the government of Iraq taking the initiative that was afforded to it by the surge and going aggressively after illegal criminal gangs and illegal militias in the Basra region."

The "surge" is the U.S. troop increase in and around Baghdad that began early last year. It was designed to concentrate more troops in the Iraqi capital to tighten security and create a more stable environment for political reconciliation.

President Bush discussed war with the chiefs of the armed services Wednesday. The military was expected to recommend delaying further withdrawals of U.S. troops once the surge troops are withdrawn, but details of the meeting have not been made public.

The U.S. military is attributing the attacks in the heavily fortified International Zone -- formerly known as the Green Zone -- to "rogue" Shiite elements backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.

A total of 16 rockets hit the zone in four separate attacks Wednesday, damaging several buildings and wounding two civilians, a coalition soldier and an Iraqi soldier, the U.S. military said in a written statement.
advertisement

CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Gen. Don Shepperd said the intra-Shiite struggles will have an impact on stability in Iraq, particularly in Basra.

"I think you're going to see significant combat in a very highly populated area of Basra. And, you're going to see a lot of innocent civilians killed as the militias war against Iraqi security forces. This is going to be ugly for the people of Basra."


link




--------------------
After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next >  [ show all ]

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   Unfolding Nature Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* US running scared of Iraq elections
( 1 2 3 4 all )
Xlea321 7,135 77 02/05/04 06:07 PM
by mntlfngrs
* Bomb Saddam! Free Iraq!!
( 1 2 3 4 ... 13 14 )
flow 17,555 264 01/07/06 07:11 PM
by CommunismIsRight
* Commander: US Troops in Iraq Through 2006 Zahid 684 1 10/19/03 12:20 AM
by wingnutx
* Success story in Iraq wingnutx 597 1 10/06/03 01:08 PM
by Azmodeus
* Bush Says US Must Stay in Iraq for Long Haul
( 1 2 all )
Zahid 1,347 21 11/02/03 09:05 PM
by monoamine
* Iraq cities falling one by one to the insurgents Xlea321 998 12 08/24/04 10:51 AM
by Dexter_Sinister
* US was warned Democracy in Iraq may be "Impossible"
( 1 2 3 4 all )
Edame 6,615 79 08/19/03 08:29 AM
by GernBlanston
* George Bush In Iraq
( 1 2 3 all )
pattern 3,724 57 12/04/03 06:43 PM
by Phred

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Enlil, ballsalsa
7,959 topic views. 1 members, 3 guests and 5 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.036 seconds spending 0.009 seconds on 15 queries.