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| Iraq |
| Army of Steve's Swarm Sadr City |
| 2007-02-14 |
| Thousands of American troops in armored Stryker vehicles swarmed through three mostly Shiite neighborhoods of northeastern Baghdad today.The operation met with little resistance, but considerable skepticism from some Iraqis, who worried that the American presence would soon melt away again, leaving ruthless violence in its place. Military commanders described the push into the neighborhoods of Shaab, Bayda and Ur, on the northern edge of Sadr City, as the first major sweep of the new security plan for Baghdad. Coming one day after the top Iraqi general claimed broad powers to search homes, detain residents and evict them from their homes, the operation was the largest of several that signaled an escalation of American and Iraqi efforts to pacify the capital. Col. Steve Townsend, commander of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said that the timetable for the operation had been pushed forward a day at the request of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki. The prime minister has endured blistering criticism over what some Shiite officials have called dangerous delays in setting the plan in motion. Today he declared that the long-awaited “surge” had finally begun. “We’ve started a new phase today, the phase of building the state on the basis of two ideas,” Mr. Maliki said at a news conference in the southern city of Karbala. Those two ideas, he said, are “the basis of reconciliation — to include all those who want to support the country — and the basis of striking hard at those who want to rebel.” Across Baghdad in the southeastern Dora neighborhood, two air strikes killed 15 suspected insurgents today as they defended a building and tried to set roadside bombs, the United States military said in a statement. In the Sunni enclave of Adhamiya to the northeast, American troops arrested a suspected Sunni insurgent leader, and searched house to house for weapons. Traffic was snarled more than usual throughout the city as Iraqi forces narrowed wide boulevards and bridges to a trickle, searching car trunks and climbing aboard trucks to examine their loads. The current security plan is the third major attempt to pacify Baghdad. In several of the neighborhoods that American troops have entered in the past week, residents seemed nonchalant, occasionally hopeful but also unsure of whether the addition of 17,500 American troops would bring their daily lives back to normal. Today, as bombs, mortar fire and gunfights left at least eight people dead in various parts of the city, the troops were greeted with what has become a familiar scene: Neighborhoods where the gunmen appear to have already fled, and where the residents appreciated the American presence but questioned its long-term effectiveness. The operation in Shaab, Ur and Bayda began at dawn today, with three battalions of American troops from the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a part of the Second Infantry Division, working with a battalion from Second Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. In all, about 2,500 American soldiers and 400 to 500 Iraqi troops were involved, according to Col. Townsend. In Ur, troops clustered on street corners in 19-ton armored Stryker vehicles. On the border of Ur and Sadr City, resident said that American tanks sat poised to fight or to keep militants from flowing between the two areas. As the sun rose, soldiers poured out of the vehicles in Ur to knock on doors and search the two- and three-story brick homes and empty lots in the area. Gunmen from the Mahdi Army — Iraq’s largest Shiite militia, loyal to the renegade anti-American cleric Moktada Al-Sadr — were believed to have made the area a base of operations. But residents said most of the fighters left several days ago. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 The city should also be renamed to something else, perhaps Little Idiot? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-02-14 18:09 |
| #8 They need to fix up Sadr city, get some of the poor to move out to better areas where there are jobs, and otherwise pull the propoganda blanket out from beneath Sadr. The city should also be renamed to something else, perhaps Little Shia or Shia town, to disassociate it from Sadr even further. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-02-14 18:06 |
| #7 " two air strikes killed 15 suspected insurgents today as they defended a building " Who do I thank for convinceing these guys to defend the undefensible? Less complaining when we kill them, then when they are caputured. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2007-02-14 16:46 |
| #6 The operation met with little resistance, but considerable skepticism from some Iraqis, who worried that the American presence would soon melt away again, leaving ruthless violence in its place. The New York Times cannot keep its talking points straight. I thought the "surge" was to be opposed at all costs and the troops re-tasked to Okinawa. But if disagreeing with the President just means generalized bitching the Gray Lady is on her game. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-14 15:46 |
| #5 maybe the prime ministres office is tipping them off when too leave |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-02-14 15:10 |
| #4 Now they need to change the ecosystem to prevent the cockroaches' return. |
| Posted by: doc 2007-02-14 14:42 |
| #3 News of the 82nd's efforts |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2007-02-14 13:00 |
| #2 Maybe the PM is a democrat. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-02-14 12:32 |
| #1 But residents said most of the fighters left several days ago. The prime minister has endured blistering criticism over what some Shiite officials have called dangerous delays in setting the plan in motion. Effect meet Cause What a joke. Perhaps the PM needs to meet something somewhat more blistering than criticism. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2007-02-14 12:28 |