Sadr militia loses Baghdad real estate war too

Strategy Page:

The battles with the Shia militias resulted in neighborhoods close to the Baghdad coming back under government control. U.S. forces have been helping with clearing these areas of any weapons or lingering gangsters. With that, the Shia terrorists now have a much more difficult time getting close enough to use mortars or rockets. The longer range 122mm (20 kilometers, versus six kilometers for the 107mm weapons and mortars) rockets can still reach the Green Zone from areas still controlled by militia groups, but few of these larger (nine feet long and 150 pounds) rockets have been encountered.

The Mahdi army lost 571 killed, 881 wounded, 490 captured, and 30 surrendered, in a week of fighting. The army and police lost over 500 to desertions, which is a much lower percentage of these losses than in previous operations. One of the army brigades had only recently finished training. To everyone's surprise, the brigade did not fall apart. The Mahdi army lost far more in terms of neighborhoods controlled, weapons, vehicles and popular support. While many of the Mahdi army factions have turned into gangsters, the ones that have caused the most ill-will are Islamic radicals. These lads wander around harassing and attacking people who say or do things the fanatics consider un-Islamic. This is what goes on in Iran, and Iraqis know it and Iraqis don't want it.

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Sometimes battles are still about real estate and who will control it. That is where Sadr's forces had their biggest losses from the Basra fighting and it fallout in Baghdad. There only apparent success was in their PR effort with a media eager to see the government effort fail so they could restart their push for a retreat from Iraq. Liberal commentators also jumped on this bandwagon before looking at who controlled the streets after the fighting.