PrairiePundit

The Hill: An Iraqi cleric has threatened to attack U.S. military advisers when they arrive in the country to help fight Sunni extremists who have plunged the nation into violence. In a sermon on Friday, Nassir al-Saedi, a cleric loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, referred to the U.S as “the occupier and said, "We will be ready for you if you are back," according to Sky News . The warning comes days after President Obama announced he was sending 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq to bolster government security forces and help combat Sunni militant members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The British Telegraph also reported that tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters from al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi army, paraded through the streets of Baghdad Saturday. The Shiite militia said it does not need or want help from the U.S. "If the Americans are thinking about coming back here, all of we Iraqis will become time bombs - we will eat them alive," ...

Times: Ayad Allawi, the former Iraqi Prime Minister, took a narrow lead last night in parliamentary elections that seem set to herald months of political deadlock. With 80 per cent of votes counted, Mr Allawi, a secular Shia, was ahead by 9,000 votes. He appears to have won five provinces and Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, has taken seven. Even if he wins, Mr Allawi faces formidable obstacles to taking power. His Iraqiya bloc is projected to win 87 seats in the 325-member parliament, exactly the same as Mr al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance. Both will have to find coalition partners. This should favour Mr al-Maliki, who is a more attractive partner for the Kurds and the Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of mostly Shia religious groups. ... There is much more. The NY Times reports that the Sadr gang has made inroads in the vote. The followers of Moktada al-Sadr , a radical cleric who led the Shia insurgency against the American occupation, have emerged as I...

Eli Lake: The U.S. is reaching out to followers of a key Shi'ite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia once battled U.S. troops and who remains a powerful leader, particularly among Iraq's urban poor. A top Sadrist political leader in Baghdad, Qusay al-Suhail, told The Washington Times that he and his colleagues have been approached five times in the last five months by emissaries seeking to arrange meetings with senior U.S. military and civilian officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. "Yes, the Americans tried to talk to me and other Sadrists several times," Mr. al-Suhail said. "They try to talk to us as individuals, but we made it clear that there is no use to talking to us when you are an occupying power." Two U.S. officials familiar with the outreach efforts confirmed that the U.S. Embassy is trying to reach an understanding with the Sadrists, who represent one of the largest factions among Iraq's Shi'ite majority and have legions of followers...

Washington Post: The unthinkable is happening in Sadr City as the U.S. military begins to shut down its outposts to meet a June 30 deadline to withdraw from Iraqi cities. Separation anxiety is growing among residents, local leaders and American soldiers in the sprawling, impoverished Shiite district that was once the most dangerous battlefield in Baghdad for U.S. troops. "When the Americans leave, everything will be looted because no one will be watching," an Iraqi army lieutenant newly deployed there said. "There will be a civil war -- without a doubt," predicted an Iraqi interpreter. Council members have asked about political asylum in the United States. Mohammed Alami, a local leader who calls himself the U.S. Embassy's unofficial representative in Sadr City, is among those expecting mayhem. "This is the most dangerous decision being made," he said recently after a meeting at a U.S. outpost in Sadr City. "We will lose the security. The insu...

Telegraph: British military and intelligence officials in Iraq are confident that Mr Sadr's political allies have been all but routed in the elections. Iraq held local elections last weekend which passed off largely peacefully with results set to be formally declared on Feb 22. Unofficial accounts of the results in Basra suggest that Sadrist parties will take only one or two of the thirty-five seats in Iraq's second city, where 4,000 British troops are stationed awaiting their final withdrawal later this year. British officials see the political setback as the latest sign of Mr Sadr's diminished importance in southern Iraq. Less than two years ago, Mr Sadr and his followers appeared to be the most powerful group in Iraqi politics, threatening the prospects of the country's western-backed government. But a high-stakes military operation in Basra last year launched by the Iraqi government with British military support dealt a severe blow to Mr Sadr's status and influe...

LA Times: The Mahdi Army fighter gets nervous every time he passes an Iraqi army checkpoint in Sadr City. He has even shaved his beard, a sign of his piety and his fealty to the Shiite Muslim militia, so the soldiers won't recognize him. "I am hunted. I can't stay home. The neighbors are informing on us," 28-year-old Bassem said at a recent rally for his leader, cleric Muqtada Sadr. Using a derogatory term for the Iraqi army, he added, "Four times, the dirty division has raided my house." At the height of Iraq's civil war, the Mahdi Army was arguably the mightiest group in the country, revered as a protector of Iraq's Shiite majority and feared for its death squads and criminal activities. The militia functioned as a state within a state, its members collecting protection fees from businesses, its fighters intimidating the Iraqi security forces that were supposed to police them. In a telling measure of the militia's power, the U.S. military cred...

CBS: One of the reasons violence in Iraq has subsided so dramatically was a significant battle that U.S. forces won in Sadr City just five months ago. Sadr City - part of Baghdad - is home to two million Shia, and the turf of fiercely anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. For years, insurgents in Iraq have been stymieing U.S. troops with homemade, low-tech weapons, like car bombs and improvised roadside explosives. But in this battle of Sadr City, as 60 Minutes learned in a high-level debriefing with the U.S. commander in Iraq, the Americans overpowered the Shiite militias with hi-tech, including the most advanced, sophisticated, whiz bang hardware and software on Earth, like electronics, lasers, and high-resolution cameras that can literally cut through the fog of war. When 60 Minutes was in Iraq to interview the new commanding general, Ray Odierno, we went with him as he surveyed the former battlefield, through neighborhoods now pacified and into a market returning to life. At his ...

Bill Roggio: Coalition forces, likely the special operations hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured nine Hezbollah Brigades operatives during three raids in the Adhamiyah district in Baghdad over the past 24 hours. The first intelligence-driven raid netted a Hezbollah Brigades cell leader who operated in Basrah. "According to information from suspects already in custody, he is believed to be involved in smuggling weapons and fighters across the Iraq-Iran border," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. Three other suspected Hezbollah Brigades associates were captured. The second raid resulted in the capture of Hezbollah Brigades operative behind improvised rocket-assisted mortar (IRAM) attacks in Baghdad. Coalition forces "found weapons, as well as electronics equipment believed to be used in the manufacture of IRAMs" and also detained three other men. A "propaganda expert" and other member of the Hezbollah Brigades were c...

Washington Post: Anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will end all his movement's attacks on U.S. troops if the United States agrees to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq , his chief spokesman said Friday. The spokesman, Salah al-Obaidi, said Sadr's paramilitary cells have already been ordered to stop fighting as U.S. and Iraqi officials negotiate an agreement over the presence of American forces in Iraq. He said the cells will be disbanded as soon as the United States agrees to a deadline for leaving the country. "If there will be a serious decision to end the occupation of Iraq, those cells will vanish," Obaidi said. "There will be no reason to let those cells stay and work." ... This is as bogus as his so called cease fire after the surge was announced. He has lost the capacity to be a factor in Iraq and that is why he is hiding in Iran. He is like a guy being chased out of town by a mob pretending to be leading a parade. He is also seizing on t...

Miami Herald: Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Wednesday offered full support for Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government if it refuses to sign an agreement President Bush has sought to allow semi-permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Iraq. Sadr warned at the same time that he would oppose any agreement between Iraq and the United States. Sadr's followers have abandoned active resistance in recent months, as Maliki's government has asserted its authority in military offensives around the country. Sadr's statement, posted Wednesday on his website, said that elements of his insurgency had erred in targeting fellow Iraqis and called for a centralized resistance directed only against U.S. occupiers. Declaring that resistance to an occupier ''is a legitimate right by human reason and in Islamic and human law,'' he called on Shiite clerics to ``issue their fatwas against signing any agreement between the government and the occupier, even if it is ...

NY Times: The United States and Iraq have agreed to set a “general time horizon” for the “further reduction of U.S. combat forces in Iraq” following the improvement in security conditions in the country, the White House said Friday. The breakthrough, which was reached between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in discussions via video link on Thursday, could lead to the successful completion of a long-term security agreement covering American operations in Iraq — from combat missions to detaining Iraqis — by the end of this month, a White House official said. "We’re converging on an agreement," the official said, referring to ongoing negotiations between Iraq and the United States on the deal. The long-term agreement had been held up by differences over issues like the extent of Iraqi control over American military operations, the right of American soldiers to detain suspects without the approval of Iraqi authorities and Iraqi demands for a t...

Washington Post: Suspected Shiite militiamen have begun using powerful rocket-propelled bombs to attack U.S. military outposts in recent months, broadening the array of weapons used against American troops. U.S. military officials call the devices Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions, or IRAMs. They are propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by 107mm rockets. They are often fired by remote control from the backs of trucks, sometimes in close succession. Rocket-propelled bombs have killed at least 21 people, including at least three U.S. soldiers, this year. The latest reported rocket-propelled bomb attack occurred Tuesday at Joint Security Station Ur, a base in northeastern Baghdad shared by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. One U.S. soldier and an interpreter were wounded in the attack. U.S. military officials say IRAM attacks, unlike roadside bombings and conventional mortar or rocket attacks, have the potential to kill scores of soldiers at once. IRAMs a...

The news agency which does not like to be quoted reports that the enemy has been throwing its weapons into the street or into a canal as the Iraqi troops moved into the city. This suggest surrender to me. Amarah was another city controlled by Sadr militia. It is adjacent to the border with Iran. The Brits refused to patrol it because of the hostility, but the Iraqis appear to be welcome there. This is another huge loss of Iran and Sadr.

Washington Post: A Shiite "special group" leader was behind a car bombing that killed and wounded scores of people Tuesday evening in northwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The bombing in the Hurriyah neighborhood had the hallmarks of large-scale attacks in predominantly Shiite areas that in the past have been attributed to Sunni insurgent groups. But a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said a "special group" led by Haydar Mehdi Khadum Al Fawadi ordered the attack in an effort to re-ignite sectarian tension in the area. The U.S. military uses the term special groups to describe bands of Shiite fighters backed by Iran. "His intent was to disrupt Sunni resettlement in Hurriyah in order to maintain extortion of real estate rental income to support nefarious activities," Lt. Col. Steve Stover said in an e-mail. ... This goes beyond mass murder for Allah. It is mass murder for extortion and money to support a criminal enterprise back by the...

Times: Iraqi and US forces were poised to strike a key Shia militia stronghold in southern Iraq yesterday as Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, pushed ahead with his campaign to rid the country of al-Mahdi Army gunmen. Iraqi army tanks, armoured troop carriers and infantrymen surrounded al-Amarah, a lawless tribal city near the Iranian border that is renowned for its smuggling rings. It once held a British base but the army was mortared so heavily by al-Mahdi Army irregulars that it withdrew to patrol the Iranian frontier. Mr al-Maliki has told the militiamen that they have until Thursday to surrender their weapons before the Iraq forces — backed by US troops and air power — move in. “The military is deployed to ensure total control of the city without leaving any gaps for the militants to flee,” General Nassir al-Abadi, a senior Defence Ministry official, said. Mr al-Maliki, who gained a boost in popularity when his forces took Basra from murderous militias, is hoping to push fo...

Washington Post: Young men armed and paid by the U.S. military took to the streets of the Iraqi capital's Sadr City area for the first time Wednesday to guard their neighborhoods, part of a new strategy designed to recruit former Shiite militiamen to American-created security groups, U.S. officials said. The program is modeled after a more than year-old initiative, now known as the Awakening movement, to pay men formerly aligned with the Sunni insurgency to turn against it. But the new groups, called "Neighborhood Guards" by the Americans and "Sons of Iraq " by Iraqis, are the first to focus solely on a heavily Shiite area and among the few to acknowledge arming civilians. Toting AK-47 assault rifles for a $300-a-month salary, the young men are viewed by U.S. officials as the best way to address a dearth of security forces in Sadr City, the site of bitter clashes this spring between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ....

Jerusalem Post: US soldiers in Baghdad captured an Iraqi arms dealer and "assassination squad" leader responsible for trafficking Shi'ite extremists in and out of neighboring Iran for training, the military said Sunday. The arrest reinforced long-standing US allegations that Iran arms, trains and funds Shi'ite Muslim militiamen inside Iraq - charges that Teheran denies. It also coincided with a two-day visit to Iran by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his second such trip in a year. ... The US arrest campaign against Shi'ite militiamen with alleged ties to Iran was likely to be on the agenda for al-Maliki's talks with Iranian officials. US soldiers, acting on intelligence from other Shi'ite militiamen already in custody, captured the Basra-based "special groups" leader late Saturday at a hideout in eastern Baghdad, according to a military statement. "The wanted man is alleged to be a commander of an assassination squad in Basra, an arms...

Washington Post: A little over two weeks ago, U.S. troops in Sadr City were on the front lines of fierce, unrelenting urban warfare. But virtually overnight, their main mission has become one of rebuilding portions of the vast, tattered Shiite district and building trust in neighborhoods where many residents despise Americans. Reaching that point took a fragile cease-fire agreement that called for a limited U.S. role in military operations in Sadr City, a stronghold of militias loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ; thousands of Iraqi soldiers; and wads of cash. "If we get Sadr City right and create irreversible momentum, there's no turning back," Brig. Gen. Mike Milano, deputy commander of U.S. forces responsible for Baghdad, said Saturday during a visit to Sadr City. Restoring order in Sadr City, home to roughly 2 million people, is the U.S. military 's top priority in the Iraqi capital. When thousands of Iraqi troops were deployed to the district two...

Bill Roggio: Less than one week after pushing into the northern two-thirds of Sadr City from the walled southern neighborhoods, the Iraqi Army is uncovering substantial weapons caches in the Mahdi Army stronghold. Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to press against the Mahdi Army in Baghdad as the New Baghdad district begins to heat up. The Iraqi Army raided numerous Mahdi Army weapons caches in Sadr City May 22-23, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The Mahdi Army has stockpiled weapons throughout the district. Eight of the armor piercing, Iranian-made explosively formed projectiles have been found along with chlorine poison, eight roadside bombs, and large quantities of explosives, weapons, ammunition, and materials used to make bombs. Iraqi troops raided a school in Sadr City on May 23 and uncovered a substantial weapons cache. "Two bottles of chlorine poison" were found amongst a remote-controlled improvised explosive device, six 155 mm artillery rounds, an artille...

Washington Post: "The city looks like a bucket of Legos dumped out on the ground," the 26-year-old pilot said. "It's brown Legos, no color. It's really dense and hard to pick things out because everything looks the same." He uses a powerful lens to zoom in on tiny silhouettes, trying to identify people with "hostile intent" among hundreds of ordinary citizens in Baghdad. In recent weeks, Katzenberger and other pilots have dramatically increased their use of helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated areas. Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months. The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis. On Wednesday, eight people, including two children, were killed when a U.S....