Iraqi, U.S. forces sweep through volatile Iraqi city

[babylonsister]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-04-07T070830Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-293355-4.xml

Iraqi, U.S. forces sweep through volatile Iraqi city
Sat Apr 7, 2007


DIWANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S. forces clashed with Shi'ite militia loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday in a dawn operation aimed at returning the volatile city of Diwaniya to government control.

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a truck bomb killed at least 10 people and wounded 24 in the latest in a string of attacks that have spewed poisonous chlorine gas into the air, three Iraqi police officers said. A fourth officer put the toll at 35 dead.

The Iraqi government said this week it was extending a seven-week-old U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad to other cities as it seeks to halt the slide to sectarian civil war.

While the crackdown has succeeded in reducing the murder rate in Baghdad, the government says militants forced out of the capital have turned other areas into new "killing fields".

Iraqi and U.S. troops fought militiamen in southeast Diwaniya, a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army, which the Pentagon says poses the greatest threat to peace in Iraq. The head of Sadr's office in the city blamed rogue gunmen.

Pamphlets dropped by U.S. helicopters warned police, who are suspected of being infiltrated by the militia, to stay off the streets. Any found carrying weapons would be shot.

more...

[hedda_foil]

1. Shit, meet new and improved fan. n/t

[JDPriestly]

2. I heard their plan is to arrest thousands of people.

That will work for a while. But then there will be problems. How will they feed and care for the thousands of people they arrest and imprison? What will happen to the Iraqi economy with thousands of otherwise active members of society, fathers, sons, etc. jailed. What is the plan for after the arrests? Or is this another Bush action based on faith and nothing more.

[babylonsister]

3. I've read that, too. You address very real problems; no doubt

Halliburton will be making a few bucks 'supporting' those arrested. As for long term planning, I don't have a clue but since everything this admin seems to do is half-assed, it wouldn't surprise me if no one's thought that far ahead.

[cliss]

4. They just never quit do they?

Question: why would the Pentagon even attempt something like this, when it's been done before, and the result was just exactly the same: disaster.

Answer: They have no choice. They are tied in with Iraq's fate, and they have been sucked into the stratified fighting, whether they want to or not.


They know it won't solve anything. It will just get a few hundred Iraqis killed. The issue of siding with the Shi'a's, or the Sunnis, it doesn't matter.

[genie_weenie]

5. Good Luck to my Marine brethren and the Iraqi People in Anbar