Baghdad: Where no one is safe (CNN reporter Cal Perry in Baghdad)

[Barrett808]

Baghdad: Where no one is safe
By Cal Perry
CNN

Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Posted: 3:38 p.m. EDT (19:38 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi capital is seething with confusion.

Murder, assassination and kidnapping are the words of the day. Blast walls rule all. Security is the growth industry in a city ravaged by bloodshed.

From the rooftop of CNN's bureau, tracer fire rises over Baghdad's Sadr City on a nightly basis. More than 2 million people live in the poor neighborhood, which is run by militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

His followers are well-armed and as loyal as they come. These are the men who control the streets; they decide who comes and who goes through this section of the city. They answer only to the cleric, not the Iraqi security forces or American troops.

"The militias are one of my biggest problems," said a senior U.S. military official with intimate knowledge of security in Baghdad. "The government needs to have a policy on what we are going to do with them."

Of course, the problem is there is still no government.

(more)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/12/perry.btsc.baghdad/index.html

[leftchick]

1. wow! some truth seeps through!

amazing but nothing new here for us veteran readers of the bad news in Iraq.

[MadMaddie]

2. The purple fingers, the elections...more US dead soldiers...more

dead Iraqi civilians...

and the cabal wants regime change in Iran...so they can fuck up another country that is currently viable....are they going to nation build in Iran?

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Of course, the problem is there is still no government.
<snip>