Iraqi troops face little resistance in Sadr City drive

Michael Gordon, NY Times:

Iraqi troops pushed deep into Sadr City Tuesday as the Iraqi government sought to establish control over the densely populated Shia enclave in the Iraqi capital.

By midday, Iraqi forces had driven to a key thoroughfare that bisects Sadr City and taken up positions near hospitals, police stations and the political headquarters of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric. There was no significant resistance and no American ground forces were involved in the operation.

The long-awaited military operation was the first determined effort by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to assert control over the neighborhood, which has been a bastion of support for Mr. Sadr, and comes in the wake of the government’s offensive in Basra.

The stage for the operation in Sadr City was set weeks ago. Shiite militias began firing rockets at the Green Zone from Sadr City in late March in response to the offensive in Basra.

As a result, American and Iraqi forces moved into the two southernmost sectors of Sadr City — Thawra and Jamila — to try to stop the rocket firing and assert control. The American military later built a wall along Al Quds streets in an effort to turn these southern areas of Sadr City into a safe zone.

But that left the question of how to regain control of the rest of Sadr City from the militias, who continued to lob rockets and mortars from the area.

An Iraqi plan to mount an offensive was developed but shelved after negotiations between representatives from the Sadr movement and Shiite politicians led to a cease-fire accord.

That agreement permitted Iraqi troops to move throughout Sadr City. But a wide-variety of militias have operated in Sadr City, and it was unclear if the Iraqi troops would encounter resistance from well-armed Mahdi Army fighters, militias loyal to Mr. Sadr, or what the American military has dubbed Iranian-backed "Special Groups."

The timing of today’s operation was kept secret. Late Monday night, the Americans removed several slabs in the concrete wall they had erected so that Iraqi forces could pass through. American M1 tanks guarded the gaps throughout the rest of the night until the offensive began.

As dawn broke, long columns of Iraqi armored personnel carriers, tanks and trucks drove toward the gaps in the concrete, some flying the Iraqi flag. Iraqi soldiers also went through on foot.

Shortly after 5 a.m. the Iraqi forces began to move north across Al Quds street, moving into an area that had been a battleground less than a week ago.

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This is another Iraqi operation that demonstrates how far the Iraqi army has come during the last year. They did have US intelligence and US air surveillance for the operation but all the boots on the ground were Iraqi.

The hospitals and party headquarters are key pieces of real estate in this the of operation. Sadr's group has used hospitals as headquarters in many areas and reports from these hospitals of injuries are usually very unreliable.

This is looking like a major defeat for the Iranian militias who had tried to block the building of the barrier the Iraqis passed through. Having lost that battle, the barrier appears to only block any movement, while permitting the Iraqis to move through it in force.