Iraq Green Zone comes under fresh attack

[marmar]

from AP, via Yahoo!



By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 10 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces.

Al-Sadr's order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.

The Shiite leader promised "a decisive and final battle" but made little headway. A key adviser to al-Maliki said the operations against al-Sadr's followers would end within days.

"Before the end of this week, the operations will come to an end and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be back to Baghdad," the adviser, Sami al-Askari, said.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, however, that "operations will not end until Basra reaches a secure and acceptable situation enabling Iraqi citizens to live normal and secure lives."

He did not elaborate on how long that might take.

The rocket or mortar attacks on the nerve center of the U.S. mission and the Iraqi government continued more than a week of near-daily fire mostly from Shiite-dominated areas of eastern Baghdad. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080331/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq