Word: amara
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...battle in the face of an empowered Iraqi security force. Indeed, many officials allied with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government say the cleric's militia and Sadrist political movement have been substantially weakened through military crackdowns on their strongholds in Sadr City and the southern cities of Amara and Basra over the past four months. "We don't think they will try to fight again, because they are too weak now," says an Interior Ministry official. "If they start, it will be their end." Says Ali Saadi, a medical professor in the Hay al-Banook district, where...
Residents in Basra and Amara say the government's crackdown in the region has, in many ways, yielded positive results. In Basra, families and young people throng the streets in the evening to socialize, no longer scared of the militias that previously dominated the city. The weapons trade also seems to have declined, with a sharp drop in attacks since 2007 as evidence. On the long, deserted road from Basra to Al-Faw, an Iraqi soldier points out several muddy port towns, consisting of low concrete houses. "It is difficult for them. Iraqi families have four or five children...
...wide stretch of marshland border creates a difficult environment for Iraqi troops to operate, some officials say drug trafficking is on the rise. "Until now, the border forces do not have the capability to control the border," says police commander General Saad Ali Harbia in Maysan's capital, Amara. "A huge amount of drugs heading for the Gulf countries pass through Amara." He says the smuggling problem has only increased since the start of the war in 2003, "because the American forces don't control the border." Agence France Presse reported last week that drug-trafficking arrests in Amara...
Indeed, despite a low profile, Harbia says the support provided by the U.S. forces has been a key component in Amara's success. And having learned their lesson from Basra and Sadr City, Harbia says, the Mahdi Army is now on the run, and Iraqi forces are using the campaign to pave the way for smoother provincial elections in October - or as members of the Sadrist movement allege, to weaken support for Sadrist-allied candidates ahead of the elections...
...operation was to create the atmosphere for proper provincial elections. One of the goals is to make the election go smoothly," says Harbia. "Now with the outstanding position of al-Maliki in Basra, Amara, Mosul and Sadr City, people are looking to him as an honest and nationalist man." And are Maliki's rivals in the Mahdi Army weaker now than they were a month ago? "This is for certain," Harbia says. "They are outside...