http://counterpunch.org/patrick03272008.html
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March 27, 2008
The Rising of the Mehdi Army
Basra Erupts

By PATRICK COCKBURN

The Iraqi army is fighting the Mehdi Army Shia militia in the streets of Basra after the government launched its most serious offensive to gain control of the southern oil city.

Clouds of dark smoke rose over Basra 340 miles south of Baghdad as Iraqi soldiers tried to take control of the main roads while black-clad militiamen fought back from the alleyways. "There are clashes in the streets," said Jamil, a resident of the city. "Bullets are coming from everywhere and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions."

The fighting was spreading across Shia areas of Iraq as the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mehdi Army, called for a campaign of civil disobedience in which shops, businesses, schools and universities would close down.

In the Sadrist stronghold of Sadr City, home to two million people in Baghdad, police and army checkpoints were simply abandoned and militiamen took over. In a statement read out by a senior aide yesterday, Mr Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over the country and added that he would declare "a civil revolt" if attacks by US and Iraqi security forces continued. Civil disobedience is different in Iraq from most countries, since most protesters are armed or have weapons available.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has moved to Basra, where he is said to be supervising the operation, in which 22 people have been killed and over 100 wounded so far. It is unlikely, however, that the Iraqi army assault would have been launched without the support of the American military, whose jets and helicopters are providing air support.

The Sadrist headquarters in the Shia holy city of Najaf has ordered the Mehdi Army field commanders to be on maximum alert and prepare "to strike the occupiers", which means attacking US forces. If they do so it would mean the end of the ceasefire declared by Mr Sadr on 29 August last year and renewed in February.

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(between Shi'ia and Sunni) is over (the Shi'ia won), and the 'civil' war (between Sadr's Medhi Army and al-Malaki's quisling government) has started. I can think of at least four reasons why:

1) With the Brit's buggering out of Basra, US military commanders are concerned about securing their supply lines, which start in Kuwait, end in Baghdad and pass through Basra.

2) Basra is the oil producing center of Iraq, and too much of it is being stolen by the Medhi Army, and too little by Halliburton.

3) BushCo. has decided that the only way to break the political stalemate between Sadr and SCIRI is to exterminate Sadr's militia.

4) The Iraqi government (al-Maliki and SCIRI being to Iraq what Abbas and Fatah have become to Palestine--sock-puppet turncoats) knows they can't defeat the Medhi Army on its own, and figured it's time to do it now, while the US still has enough military assests to do it for them.


I found this to be nothing short of outrageous hilarity: "The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has moved to Basra, where he is said to be supervising the operation..."...bullshit: al-Maliki's offices and residence are in the Green Zone, which is currently locked down for the duration of the operations, due to heavy mortar and rocket fire; he's safer in a Basra battle zone than he is in his own capitol...interesting, however, that Gen. Betray-U.S. waited until McCain and Co. finished their Iraqi photo-op before launching the attacks...