[Marxism] Sadrists in Baghdad hold off drive by US/Iraq forces to halt Green Zone attacks

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/world/middleeast/06cnd-iraq.html?_rIraqi
Forces and Militia Clash in Baghdad 

By Erica Goode and Michael R. Gordon 
New York Times April 6, 2008 

Baghdad - Sharp fighting broke out in Baghdad's Sadr City district on Sunday
as American and Iraqi troops sought to control neighborhoods used by Shiite
militias to fire rockets and mortars into the nearby Green Zone. 

But the operation failed to stop the attacks on the heavily fortified zone,
headquarters for the Iraq central government and the American Embassy here.
By day's end, at least two American soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in
the zone, one of the worst daily tolls for the American military in the most
protected part of Baghdad. Altogether, at least three American soldiers were
killed and 31 wounded in attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, and at least 20
Iraqis were killed, mostly in Sadr City. 

The heightened violence came on the eve of congressional testimony in
Washington by General David H. Petreaus, the senior American commander in
Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to defend their strategy for political
reconciliation and improved security in the country. 

The Green Zone attacks Sunday were, symbolically at least, a sign that
forces hostile to the United States are still able to strike at the heart of
the American nerve center and seat of government power in the capital of
Iraq. 

The attacks were sure to feature prominently in the upcoming hearings,
giving ammunition to Democratic critics who argue that Iraq is not making
progress, as well as Republicans who say it would be foolish to reduce the
American troop presence in Iraq quickly. 

The attacks also came as Iraq's national security council intensified
pressure on the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political group led by
Moktada Al-Sadr, the powerful anti-American Shiite cleric, to disarm. In a
statement, the council declared that all political parties must immediately
dissolve their militias and surrender their weapons if they wished to
participate in elections. 

The timing of the statement was seen as message meant in particular for Mr.
Sadr, who represents the biggest political threat to Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki and his associates, and who derives much of his support from
Sadr City, the sprawling area of Baghdad that has been encircled by American
and Iraqi troops for more than a week. 

Violence in Sadr City first flared more than a week ago after Prime Minister
Maliki began a flawed military campaign to retake the southern port city of
Basra from Shiite militias. The Basra operation ended only after American
and British forces rushed to help reinforce the assault. 

The fighting in Baghdad had calmed considerably in recent days. On Sunday
morning, though, Iraqi troops backed up by an American Stryker squadron
moved through a southern section of Sadr City, and were met by militia
fighters armed with rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons. 

After the Iraqi soldiers came under attack, American forces, equipped with
Abrams tanks, and troop-carrying Strykers and Bradley fighting vehicles
rumbled to the scene. An American helicopter fired at least two Hellfire
missiles at militia fighters armed with rocket propelled grenades, and
blasted one of their vehicles. Later at least one militia-fired rocket hit
the Jamilla market, a heavily frequented part of Sadr City, where clashes
left at least 20 people dead, Iraqi officials said. 

At large whoosh from a nearby rocket disrupted a briefing held by Iraqi and
American commanders for a small group of reporters at the lone American Army
and Iraqi combat outpost in Sadr City, prompting correspondents and soldiers
to duck for their lives. The news conference, given by Gen. Abud Qanbar
Hashim, the Iraqi commander for Baghdad, and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W.Hammond,
who leads the American division charged with securing the capital, began as
bursts of gunfire rattled nearby streets. 

General Hammond explained later that the projectile was probably an errant 
107 millimeter rocket aimed at the Green Zone and launched from north Sadr
city. 

Mr. Maliki has issued a series of seemingly inconsistent decrees in recent
days about his willingness to take on militias. General Abud said that the
Iraqi operations in Sadr City were not aimed at any specific political
movement, a statement that seemed intended to reassure Mr. Sadr's followers,
but he insisted that Iraqi security forces would take action against any
militia brandishing arms. 

"The main thing is that arms should be in the hands of the state. And we
will never allow any armed group to carry arms as an alternative to the
state to provide security to the citizens," he said. 

The immediate concern for the American forces was more tactical: trying to
shut down the mortar and rocket attacks that have become a daily problem for
the Green Zone. 

Moving into the streets and allies, American soldiers have taken up
positions in abandoned houses, living in primitive conditions and trying to
fend off counterattacks from a group of enemy fighters that appeared to have
a well-organized system of command and control. 

Michael Boom, sergeant major of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry
Regiment, said more than 1,000 American and Iraqi troops were operating in
his sector. He said that the recent fighting began on March 25 when the
Americans heard that Iraqi checkpoints were being overrun. 

"My soldiers pushed out to help the Iraqi security forces reestablish the
checkpoints. In some cases, we actually took over the checkpoints until they
could get forces back there," he said. "My companies have been taking direct
fire every day." 

On March 28, the Americans moved to take control of the militia rocket sites
to try to blunt the attacks on the Green Zone. The militias responded with a
heavy counterattack the next day. 

"They obviously wanted to retain that ground and maintain their ability to
shoot rockets with impunity," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, the commander of
the squadron. "They have a command and control structure. They have a plan
in place." 

The fighting increased Sunday as Iraqi forces began to clear a neighborhood
to the east of the outpost, with American support. 

Over the last week, Mr. Maliki has also been trying to recoup the political
damage he sustained when his American-supported military assault in Basra
met with intense resistance from militias. After a six-day stalemate,
high-level negotiations resulted in Mr. Sadr issuing a statement on March 30
ordering his followers to stop fighting. 

On Sunday, the security council, whose members include Mr. Maliki, President
Jalal Talabani, Mahmoud Mashidani, the speaker of the parliament, and
representatives of the major political parties, demanded that the militias
be disbanded as part of a 15-point statement issued Sunday morning. The
statement also called for all parties to "appreciate the role of the Army in
imposing security and order in Basra and the rest of the provinces." 

Mahmood Uthman, an independent member of Parliament who is part of the
Kurdish Alliance, said that he doubted the Sadr group would go along. Mr.
Sadr and his followers, he said, were likely to insist that any call for
disarmament be applied to other political parties with militias, including
the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, whose armed wing is the Badr militia. 

Luway Smessem, the head of the Sadr party's political committee, said that
while the group agreed with much of the statement, party officials had
"reservations" about some points, including the demands that militias
disband and that Mr. Maliki's Basra campaign be supported. 

"The Mahdi Army is not a militia," he said. "We don't have masked fighters
and everyone knows who we are and who are commanders are." 

Until Sunday, the last time an American soldier had died from attacks on the
Green Zone was in July of last year. 

In addition, a rocket fired Sunday at a military base in the Rustimiya
neighborhood of Baghdad killed one American soldier and wounded 14. 

A third rocket landed just outside a checkpoint at the entry of the Green
Zone, sheering off the corner of a building and wounding five Iraqi
civilians. The rocket landed 50 yards in front of vehicles driven by
employees of the New York Times. 

The force of the rocket, one employee said, ripped a four-inch deep hole in
the road's tarmac surface. 

"All the cars started speeding toward us, like cockroaches out of a drain,
trying to get away from there as quickly as possible," the employee said. 

Mohammed Razak, 16, who works at a bakery in the first floor of the building
that was hit, went back to work soon afterward. 

"The souls are given to us by God and he is the one who decides to take
them," Mr. Razak said. "It's our living and we have to keep working." 

******** 

Ahmed Fadam, Stephen Farrell and Qaid Mizher and employees of The New York
Times in Baghdad contributed reporting. 



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