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Calm in Sunni bastion ahead of Bush speech
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Streets were quiet in a Baghdad district where U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 50 people in a major battle as President George W. Bush prepared on Wednesday to unveil a plan to send more troops to turn the war around.

Iraqi troops sealed off some areas in Haifa Street, a Sunni Arab stronghold, but fighting from a major U.S. and Iraqi operation to rid the area of "terrorist hideouts" had ended, an official at the Iraqi Army media office told Reuters.
"Whoa! Quite a desolation y'got there!"
"Yes. We call it 'peace.'"
"That's not salt you're sowing?"
The offensive, backed by American fighter jets and helicopters, followed an announcement by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of a crackdown on militants in the capital. The Pentagon has identified Mehdi Army militias loyal to Sadr, a Maliki ally, as the greatest threat in Iraq. "We need a greater focus on the militias, which kill innocent civilians and defy the government with impunity," Hashemi wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. "A comprehensive plan is needed to save Iraq from disaster. I hope that the administration has considered these critical issues and that the new strategy effectively addresses them."

In a sign of bubbling sectarian tension, residents in battle-scarred Haifa Street said the push was simply a front for Shi'ites pushing Sunnis out of the capital. "Is this Maliki's plan to secure Iraq? The government is handing us over to the Mehdi Army," a woman said.

"They were all innocent civilians," a man said pointing at bodies that had been brought to a local mosque in Haifa Street. "They are the martyrs of Haifa Street."
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2007-01-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=177416