U.S. military ventures into Sadr City, kills 10 Iraqis

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/10/26/a2.int.sadrcity.1026.p1.php?section=nation_world

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S.-led forces battled gunmen in Sadr City during two rare forays into the vast Shiite Muslim slum on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people. The U.S. troops, who called in air strikes as they came under attack, were searching for a kidnapped U.S. soldier and hunting for a Shiite death squad leader, authorities said.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the raid had been authorized by the Iraqi government. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, quickly renounced the operation, telling reporters at a news conference that it was an example of a continuing lack of coordination between Iraqi and U.S.-led troops.

In Wednesday's raid on Sadr City, troops set out to capture a ``top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death-squad activity throughout eastern Baghdad,'' the U.S. military said in a statement. It was unclear if they caught the cell leader.

Around 3 a.m., U.S.-led troops entered a neighborhood on the outskirts of the slum, according to witnesses who said aircraft struck houses, roads and a local generator, and that troops on foot cut electricity wires.

[bigtree]

1. that'll free 'em

[acmavm]

2. It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature and/or al Sadr. And

right not we're neck deep in shit with both of them. And if they decide to get even, it will not be pretty.

[malaise]

3. Nouri al-Maliki

will soon be killed.