Posted by Damozel | Meanwhile, in Iraq, the surge is still working as well as ever. On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed 49 mourners at a funeral in Iraq and wounded 50. (The Independent) The funeral was for "two members of a US-backed neighbourhood security unit who were killed recently." (The Independent) The bombing was most likely the work of the Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda (The Independent).
The attack was one of the deadliest in Iraq for months and underscored the ability of militants to wreak havoc despite overall falls in violence that has prompted the United States to start withdrawing troops from Iraq.... Northern Iraq has seen an upsurge in bombings this week, including one that killed 40 people in the town of Baquba, capital of Diyala, on Tuesday. (The Independent)
Meanwhile, in Sadr, the US-backed Iraqi troops captured a Shia militia stronghold.
The commander of Iraqi forces in Basra, Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji, said his troops had seized the centre of the Hayaniya neighbourhood, one of the main strongholds of Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army. "We are chasing fugitives and arresting them," he said. "We expect within the next few hours that the operation will be concluded successfully."
After several hours, the fighting appeared to die down, but sporadic gunfire could still be heard.
Major Tom Holloway, the British Army's military spokesman, said the offensive had been launched with heavy bombardment "to give a demonstration of the firepower available if required". No information on casualties was available.
A Reuters reporter in Nassiriya, another southern provincial capital, said there were also clashes between government troops and Mehdi Army fighters in a nearby town and a curfew had been imposed.
Mr Maliki's crackdown against the Mehdi Army in Basra in late March initially failed to drive the militia from the streets and resulted in fighting in strongholds of Sadrist fighters throughout the south of the country and in Baghdad.
The Prime Minister, himself a Shia, has since threatened to ban Mr Sadr's mass movement from political life if the cleric does not disband the Mehdi Army. (The Independent)
Muqtada al-Sadr isn't taking any of this calmly. He has threatened the Iraqi Army with 'open war.'
"I'm giving the last warning and the last word to the Iraqi government," said Mr Sadr. "Either it comes to its senses and takes the path of peace ... or it will be [seen as] the same as the previous government [of Saddam Hussein]."
The Sadrists see the attack on them as orchestrated by the Badr Organisation, the powerful Shia militia which is allied to the government and many of whose men have joined the Iraqi army and security services. "If they don't come to their senses and curb the infiltrated militias, we will declare an open war until liberation," Mr Sadr said.
Mr Sadr has tried for the past four years to avoid an open military confrontation with Iraqi government forces when backed by United States firepower.
In Basra, the Mehdi Army has been able to hold off the Iraqi army in gun battles but has then retreated. But there is no sign so far of the militia being eliminated and it could probably launch devastating counter attacks in the slum districts where its supporters live (The Independent).
While the US has pressed for the Iraqi government to take out the Sadrists, the Independent reckons that it was caught "by surprise by current events in which the US finds itself fighting a war on two fronts: one against the Sunni Arabs, which it has waged since 2003, and now a second, which is just beginning, against the Shia."(The Independent)
In the meantime, the rise of suicide bombings is troubling evidence that al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to make a comeback. (The Independent)
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