BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq’s leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled for control of the southern oil capital, fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and unleashed rockets on the Green Zone.

Armed Mahdi Army militiamen appeared on some Baghdad streets for the first time in more than six months, as al-Sadr’s followers announced a nationwide campaign of strikes and demonstrations to protest a government crackdown on their movement. Merchants shuttered their shops in commercial districts in several Baghdad neighborhoods.

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters fought Shiite militiamen in Baghdad’s Sadr City district after the local office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party came under attack, the U.S. said. Residents of the area reported intermittent explosions and gunfire in the area late Tuesday.

An American soldier was killed in fighting Tuesday afternoon in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. No further details were released, and it was unclear whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

Full Story Here:
Iraqi Leaders Face Grave Shiite Crisis

Let me say this as plainly as possible, if al-Sadr and his gang of cut-throats are the problem, remove the problem, how simple can it be??

Simple that is, if you overlook the fact that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a Shiite as well, and the leadership of Iraq, being mostly Shiite, is reported to be close to al-Sadr…

Forget political correctness, if you cut off the head of a snake, the body dies, I can’t put it out there in words that are any more easily understood…

Gen. Cardon said, “the potential for miscalculation is high.”, uh General, with ALL due respect Sir, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a miscalculation from the very start, why stop making miscalculations now??

Just get the job done, remove the threat, remove the radical insurgent leader al-Sadr, dispose of his Mahdi Army and it’s members and we’ll be well on our way to actually accomplishing something in Iraq, you know the ‘players‘, you know the tactics, you know the strategy, do the job that needs to done, the job that should be done, and get this thing over with…

Trackback URL:
http://texasfred.net/archives/1037/trackback/