Irag gets serious in Basra

Reuters:

Police and soldiers set up checkpoints and searched cars in Iraq's second city on Thursday in a first test of new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to restore stability with an "iron fist" security crackdown.

Maliki ordered the army onto the streets of Basra on Wednesday for a one-month state of emergency to show Iraqis he means business about tackling insecurity, 11 days after his government of national unity was sworn in.

Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, should be an early indication of whether he can back his words with action after previous Iraqi leaders failed to ease a raging Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence threatening vital oil exports.

But some Basra residents said his security forces face a complex network of gangs and assassins that includes Saddam Hussein loyalists and warring Shi'ite militias who thrive in the bloody chaos of an oil city that provides much of Iraq's income.

"All the assassinations carried out by gangs are done by former regime members and armed men who belong to some parties. Their goal is to destroy security to serve their interests," said merchant Jawaad Hassan.

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You defeat an enemy with a raiding strategy by cutting off his lines of movement and communications. That is what the check points are all about. That is how the Israelis contained the Palestinian death cults. The report of a pregnant women being killed when her driver refused to stop at a US checkpoint elsewhere in Iraq points out the danger of ignoring the demand to stop.