With no march, Baghdad relatively quiet

[unhappycamper]

With no march, Baghdad relatively quiet
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, April 11, 2008

BAGHDAD — Northwestern Baghdad saw sporadic fighting Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, but nothing on the level of last month’s turmoil between coalition forces and Shiite militias.

American and Iraqi security forces had been preparing for violence since Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced a “million-man march” originally scheduled for Wednesday. He postponed the march indefinitely Tuesday, but American forces remained braced for attacks.

Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, based in the Ghazaliya area, did kill at least 10 attackers who moved on the unit from the Shula area, according to radio reports.

But the area was otherwise quiet, said Maj. Joe Kuchan, executive officer of 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the unit actually responsible for Shula and several other parts of northwestern Baghdad.

Company B, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment soldiers received tips that insurgents were massing for an attack at about the same time the 75th Cav soldiers were chasing down the attackers. The infantry soldiers spent the night observing the Shula area from a highway bridge and the roof of an Iraqi army compound at the Shula border. A handful of Iraqi army soldiers helped with the guard duty, but most slept soundly through the night in the rooms below the American soldiers.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53973