Mahdi Army patrols Shiite neighborhoods

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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/15032026.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As a car enters the Shiite district of Sadr City, a group of men step from the curb and flag down the vehicle. "Who are you and where are you going?" one of them demands.

All is well after passengers produce papers, not from the government but from the office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "We are sorry," one man says. "May God be with you."

Al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, keeps a sharp eye out for strangers in the teeming Baghdad district, home to 2.5 million people, as well as other Shiite areas across the country.

By day, militiamen in Sadr City keep weapons out of sight. By night, they set up checkpoints, where they search cars and examine IDs to guard against would-be suicide bombers and other Sunni Arab militants.

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1. western journ'st barely survives kidnap attempt-setup by cops in Sadr City

Incident on Khairallah Tulfa Street By Phillip Robertson at Salon.com--2nd part of his series:
(part one: City of Vengeance)

"I wanted to talk to the cop because I wanted to find out more about a place called al-Seddeh and a mysterious figure named Abu Dereh. I'd been looking into a secret Mahdi Army court located in Sadr City, which pronounces summary sentences upon the Sunni captives who end up before it. Those same captives would later be found in shallow graves, bound and bearing signs of torture, in an empty field at the edge of Sadr City, a piece of waste ground called al-Seddeh, which Iraqis have nicknamed the "Happiness Hotel." Abu Dereh, or "Father of Shield," is a name that kept coming up in interviews about this court. One police source said he was the major figure behind the death squads and he carried out the sentences. I began to think of Abu Dereh as a dark king inside Sadr City, the face the sheiks and imams did not want exposed to the press."

"By this time, I was worried. I gave up on the interview and headed for the car. Ahmad's patrol pulled away down the street, leaving us alone on Khairallah Tulfa street. We got into Haidar's car. He started the engine and was just pulling away from the curb when the attack started."

"A dark sedan carrying four men suddenly crossed the median of Khairallah Tulfa going in the wrong direction, heading straight for us, trying to cut us off. When the driver hit the brakes, there was about 15 feet between our respective fenders. I remember exactly what I was thinking as our cars approached each other: "Who is this guy who can't drive?" Their car stopped and the shotgun passenger got out with a Kalashnikov. But Haidar had seen the men carrying weapons in the car a second before I did. He hit the gas, swerving around the dark sedan and the man in the road with the rifle. It was a matter of split-second timing, and the attackers had miscalculated. If they had approached faster, they would have been able to block our car."

"As Haidar drove around the dark sedan, the man with the rifle opened fire. ..."