U.S. Troops, Shiite Militia Fight in Eastern Baghdad

[ECH1969]

Wednesday night in Baghdad, intense clashes broke out in neighborhoods east of Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim slum controlled by radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Witnesses in the nearby Obaydi and Kamaliyah areas reported as many as seven loud explosions at about 9:30 p.m., followed by the sound of U.S. helicopters and fighter planes overhead. Then shooting broke out. Some streets were filled with members of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by Sadr, residents said.

" Allahu akbar !" blared loudspeakers on mosques in some areas after the shooting began. "God is great!"

Mohammed al-Askari, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, said Iraqi and U.S.-led forces carried out a raid in those neighborhoods and were shot at, but he would not provide any other details.

Early Thursday morning, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad also confirmed a significant operation in the area but would not elaborate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083000584.html

[TomInTib]

1. If we are fighting at night, it is US-instigated

This will definitely not play well on the Street.

[Barrett808]

2. Oh, hell. Looks like the balloon is going up.

They're trying to take down al-Sadr. They will fail, and they risk inflaming all of southern Iraq.