Shi'ite militia, Iraqi troops in fierce clashes

[NNN0LHI]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-28T130850Z_01_GEO743062_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-5

DIWANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Two dozen Iraqi soldiers were killed in fierce street fighting with Shi'ite militiamen in the city of Diwaniya on Monday in some of the bloodiest clashes yet among rival factions in Shi'ite southern Iraq.

Thirty seven people were killed, according to army, militia and medical sources. Five soldiers were posted missing in a battle officials said began late on Sunday when troops tried to detain men of the Mehdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed 13 policemen and wounded 62 other people outside the Interior Ministry, police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the city since U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a big security clampdown three weeks ago.

Seven U.S. soldiers were among more than 60 people killed on Sunday in violence that challenged assertions by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that his forces had the upper hand in violence that many fear could turn into all-out civil war.

[Zynx]

1. The government military fighting a militia in a pitched battle...

Nah. Can't be civil war.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Iraqis fighting US backed troops doesn't sound like civil war to me?

Sounds like the Iraqi people who want us to leave are killing our soldiers and the Iraqi soldiers (probably Kurds) they have tagging along with them.

Don

[Zynx]

4. I rather doubt that the Iraqi army is majority Kurd.

More likely majority Shi'ite.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Don't think so

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2680-2004Apr10?language=printer

Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 11, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD, April 10 -- A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah earlier this week to support U.S. Marines battling for control of the city, senior U.S. Army officers here said, disclosing an incident that is casting new doubt on U.S. plans to transfer security matters to Iraqi forces. snip

The 620-man 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight Monday after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces. The convoy then turned around and returned to the battalion's post on a former Republican Guard base in Taji, a town north of the capital.

Eaton said members of the battalion insisted during the ensuing discussions: "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis." snip

The battalion, traveling by truck and escorted by troops from the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, passed through a Shiite area in northwest Baghdad. They were fired on, and six members of the unit were wounded, one seriously, Eaton said. A crowd of Shiites gathered and "surged" at the convoy, he said. "They were stunned that they were taken under fire by their fellow population," he said. snip

But Eaton, who visited the unit the day after the incident, disagreed. He noted that Iraqi troops have "fought very, very bravely" against Iran. He said that, in his view, the problem was caused by poor leadership and complicated by the fact that the unit was trained by U.S. advisers who emphasized that their job would be to defend Iraq against outside forces.


Bush had to import Kurds to kill Iraqis after this fiasco.

[Zynx]

6. I never said there weren't Kurdish units. I just doubted that the army as

a whole was Kurdish. There simply aren't enough of them for that to be.

[NNN0LHI]

7. If Bush couldn't get Shiites to kill Sunnis I find it very unlikey...

...that he has convinced Shiites to kill Shiites.

Don

[Botany]

3. It is not a civil war because Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said so .....

posted yesterday by leftchick:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


BAGHDAD, Iraq - A wave of bomb attacks and shootings swept Iraq Sunday, killing dozens of people despite a massive security operation in the capital and appeals from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end to sectarian fighting.

Al-Maliki insisted that his government was making progress in combatting attacks by insurgents and sectarian clashes between Shiites and Sunnis.

"We're not in a civil war. Iraq will never be in a civil war," he said through an interpreter on CNN's Late Edition. "The violence is in decrease and our security ability is increasing."

Asked about U.S. allegations that Iran is supporting Iraqi groups involved in sectarian violence, al-Maliki said the reports were being investigated. He said Iraqi authorities were in contact with Iran in order to determine the veracity of the information "and to prevent this interference."

The Shiite prime minister dodged a series of questions about Iraqi support for Hezbollah and whether his government had any intention of recognizing Israel.