Mahdi army in retreat

Strategy Page:

After a month of fighting, the Mahdi Army has disappeared from the streets of Basra, the largest city in the south. The army and police are everywhere, and people are providing information on where Mahdi Army personnel are hiding out, and the locations of their weapons caches. Up north, in the Sadr City section of east Baghdad, the Mahdi Army is still fighting hard. But the army and police have the upper hand, and are pushing the Shia militiamen back block by block. Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al Sadr has responded by threatening to order his men to go after American troops if the government does not back off. That's won't work, because the Mahdi Army is not particularly skillful, and not very united either. He recently ordered his troops to stop fighting Iraqi soldiers and police, and concentrate on the Americans. The Iraqi security forces have not reciprocated, and continue coming after the Mahdi Army.

The dozen or so factions of the Mahdi Army vary in their loyalty to Sadr, or to political solutions. Several of the Mahdi Army factions are basically criminal gangs masquerading as religious zealots. Sadr denies he is a pawn of Iran, but as Mahdi Army houses are captured, more Iranian weapons and equipment show up, as well as religious propaganda from Iran....

...

The Mahdi army has been a fiasco whenever it has attempted to fight US forces. For Sadr to order them into a suicidal battle with our forces shows how out of touch he is with reality. The Iraqi army is doing what it needs to do for the government to control the country. The Mahdi army is a less formidable force than al Qaeda.

Speaking of al Qaeda, what happened to their 30 day offensive they announced last week? It was more like a 30 minute PR offensive with their typical assault on non combatants. It certainly did not rally anyone to their cause.

Bill Roggio has more on the latest battles in Sadr City where the Mahdi army lost 41 on Sunday.

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