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| Iraq |
| US in push against Mehdi Army |
| 2007-01-03 |
| US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, blamed for sectarian death squad killings, senior Iraqi officials say. The Pentagon, in a report last month, described Mehdi Army as the biggest threat to Iraq's security and diplomats say Washington is impatient to confront them. Several officials in the Shiite political parties that dominate Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's unity government also say they are losing patience with Sadr's supporters and predict more raids like last week's joint US-Iraqi operation in which a senior Sadr aide was killed. "There will be limited and targeted operations against members of the Mehdi Army," a senior Shiite official told Reuters. "The ground is full of surprises but we think around January 5 there will be some operations. I can say no more." British forces in the southern oil province of Basra have also been conducting major raids against groups they describe as "rogue Mehdi Army", some entrenched in Iraqi police units. Last week, British troops blew up the headquarters of Basra's Major Crimes Unit and said they freed tortured prisoners. "The Americans want a war with the Mehdi Army," said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, who is not American or British. "They want to get rid of the militia and it seems they will succeed in getting one." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 I can say no more LOL LOL LOL LOL ROFLMAO |
| Posted by: KBK 2007-01-03 21:31 |
| #11 I'm sure they have a paypal account somewhere! :-) |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-01-03 17:22 |
| #10 Is this any way to repay the mooks that hanged Sammy? ;) |
| Posted by: imoyaro 2007-01-03 15:40 |
| #9 AC - you forgot the dire warning about the Allan's Giant Spiders of Doom! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-01-03 08:26 |
| #8 Fred - you missed an ACTUAL "I can say no more" in there. That's not like you.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-01-03 08:14 |
| #7 Does any body have the time the limited New Year Offensive will begin? And at what location? I missed the ad in the paper this morning. But I did hear that quantities of terrs are limited and all deaths will be final. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-01-03 06:57 |
| #6 "masters of concealment" lol forgot that one... |
| Posted by: RD 2007-01-03 06:47 |
| #5 Thanks, AC - I got a chuckle out of the 'dire warnings' that failed to materialize. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-01-03 06:18 |
| #4 While we're at it, where is that cataclysmic backlash of revenge attacks from Saddam's grief-stricken supporters? Keep in mind that ominous warnings about this were almost the sole focus of mainstream media reports leading up to Saddam's hanging. There is plenty of mayhem, torture, and murder in Iraq just now, but at no more than the usual levels; and there are some indications that violence may actually be down a bit. It is a little early yet, but we may end up consigning this one to the dustbin of history, along with various other dire warnings of the past five years: the brutal Afghan winter, the invincible ten-foot tall Pashtun warrior (slayer of empires), Robert Fisk's "masters of concealment" digging in to stop the American juggernaut dead in its tracks before Baghdad, Fallujah as an Iraqi Stalingrad, and, of course, the mythic uprising of the fabled Arab street. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-01-03 03:54 |
| #3 Sounds like either wishful thinking or someone pretending to "leak" something in order to get Mookie to straighten up and fly right. If it were really going to happen, I don't think anyone would be talking about it ahead of time. That being said, a brigade of the 2nd Infantry has just arrived in Baghdad from Mosul which has been turned over to Iraqi forces. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2007-01-03 03:19 |
| #2 Chicago Bears offensive line initiates passing strategy intended to acheive limited yardage gains against Packer defense. Sound like something Lovie Smith would say? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-01-03 02:30 |
| #1 US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army Limited. Sigh. Sort of like saying "we're going to test the water by doing a half-a$$ed job, pi$$ a few people off when they don't get spectacular results, they'll get scared and whine about how we shouldn't do things like that, and then we'll quit it to get smacked by them the next day. I don't get it. Nobody likes the guy except some people we don't like anyway, why not just kill him and his stupid "militia" and everyone that we care about will be happy? Repeat as necessary until people feel confident that we are on their side and the problems will diminish to a policing level instead of a military one. |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-01-03 02:14 |