Shi'ite fighters seize centre of Nassiriya

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: Yahoo News

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have seized the centre of the southern Nassiriya city, a Reuters witness said on Friday.

A four-day-old Iraqi army crackdown on Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army in Basra, Iraq's second city and its gateway to the Gulf, has sparked fighting across the south and in Baghdad.

In the capital, Iraqi lawmakers were due to hold an emergency session in a bid to end violence in the flashpoint oil city of Basra, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave militants a new deadline to hand over their weapons.

A Reuters reporter in Nassiriya, capital of Dhi Qar province, said he could see groups of fighters with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The sound of sporadic gunfire echoed through the streets. Police appeared to be staying in their stations, he said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080328/ts_nm/iraq_dc_58

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Plumes of smoke rise from Baghdad's Kadhmiya district March 27, 2008. (Omar al-Obeidy/Reuters)

[Vinca]

1. So now it should be perfectly clear. The "surge" had nothing to do

with any decrease in violence. It was al-Sadr's ceasefire. A smart person might want to chat with the cleric and find out exactly what he wants, but we know how that goes.

[Igel]

6. That's a common statement.

The Mehdi Army must have been especially active in Anbar province.

If not, then you should reconsider the accuracy of your statement.

The US military has. It says 15-20% of the 'surge' effects are Mehdi-related. They derive this number from looking at the distribution of fatalities, US/coalition and civilian, in the months leading up to the onset of the surge. JM works primarily in Shi'ite areas; reduction there after the Sadrist ceasefire--less than in most other areas--is a reduction--provides their number. Seems like a reasonable way of doing it; it does disregard the potential for violence, though ... but counting reductions from how bad things could be in theory seems a poor way of doing reality-based calculations.

It's fairly obvious what Sadr wants, given his conduct in Sadr City and Basra: A share of the spoils, with a share of the power given to him, personally. He and a faction or two of Shi'ites essentially divided up the city's economy, rendering Basra into an overlapping sequence of fiefdoms (in keeping with his general medieval outlook). Seeking ayatollah-hood would put him on par with Hakim; it's unclear that Hakim is currently as brutally power-hungry as Sadr.

It's the Hezbollah/Hamas/Afghan-warlord problem moved into Iraq. How many well-armed/trained militias answering to a non-governmental figure do you really want running a city or parts of a country? (Notice that framing Sadr simply as a warlord effectively reframes the issue; the difference between him and, say, most of the Afghans is that instead of claiming power as his justification, he claims Allah has personally chosen him as a model for emulation, near-reverence, and most certainly, as the object of submission--it's also worth nothing that this Allah-has-chosen-me business only became important when his 'my army says I should be in charge' failed to achieve its goal.)

[SpiralHawk]

2. "This is just another sign of the republicon SURGE to Nation Building." - Commander AWOL

"Only a fact-based lib-rul could interpret this as, um, a, unfortunate news. In our elite republicon cabal's grasp of 'reality' this development is just more 'proof' that republicon crony oil & munitions & mercenary profits are going to SURGE higher and higher. Smirk.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot my republicon homelander propaganda talking point: 'too bad about all the dead people and stuff. I'm going to need a LONG vacation at the Imperial Pig Farm Upon Crawford to sop up all the Conservative Compassion I am feeling. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[saigon68]

3. Love the Ass-Wipe Above

The most evil ever

[mwb970]

4. Looks like "victory" to me.

We won! We won! Can we come home now?

[Supersedeas]

5. the media has a script