Across Iraq, battles erupt with Mahdi Army

[Nitrogenica]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Baghdad - The Mahdi Army's seven-month-long cease-fire appears to have come undone.

Rockets fired from the capital's Shiite district of Sadr City slammed into the Green Zone Tuesday, the second time in three days, and firefights erupted around Baghdad pitting government and US forces against the militia allied to the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

At the same time, the oil-export city of Basra became a battleground Tuesday as Iraqi forces, backed by US air power, launched a major crackdown on the Mahdi Army elements. British and US forces were guarding the border with Iran to intercept incoming weapons or fighters, according to a senior security official in Basra.

The US blames the latest attacks on rogue Mahdi Army elements tied to Iran, but analysts say the spike in fighting with Shiite militants potentially opens a second front in the war when the American military is still doing battle with the Sunni extremists of Al Qaeda in Iraq.



Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0326/p01s13-woiq.html

[claypigeonb]

1. I'm trying to avoid hysteria!

Predictable, it seems to me, considering all the signals the U.S. has been sending in the last few days that it is about to take out everything in Iran our armchair commanders think might possibly be "nuclear facilities."

[jimshoes]

2. Evidently shrub thinks this is a success

of some sort. Go figure.:crazy: