Word: amara
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...Amara, the capital of Iraq's unruly Maysan province - long a smuggling hub for weapons and drugs on Iraq's border with Iran - Iraqi forces are waging a crackdown on the Mahdi Army, led by popular radical Shi'ite cleric and opposition leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the campaign last month under the banner of "imposing the law" and wresting control away from militias operating "outside the law." Similar campaigns in Basra, the chaotic port 100 miles away, and Sadr City, the huge Baghdad slum, initially met fierce resistance from al-Sadr's followers...
...complained that their members are being targeted in the operation for political reasons. But the government says its arrests are unbiased and are warranted by criminal activity. The extent to which either claim is accurate is difficult to determine. But regardless of the reason, one thing is clear among Amara's newly fortified police force: the Mahdi Army is being hunted...
...Thursday and Brigadier General Saad Ali Harbia's phone rings - not his regular mobile, but the new hotline that the Iraqi police force in Amara, 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, has set up to receive tips that could lead to arrests. The tip comes from a man who says he knows about a financier of Mahdi Army commanders in the region. Harbia's assistant takes down the information and says they will follow...
...Mahdi Army safe house, which - as a member of Harbia's forces informed him through the window - had just been raided. Another officer said the Mahdi Army even occupied one of the old police buildings until they were pushed out last month. "There are criminals and killers [in Amara] and no one arrested them before. But with this operation, we have court permission to do so," Harbia said as he waved to bystanders from the car window...
Though a sense of calm has settled across some rural areas, where Sunni Awakening Groups have chased out insurgents, many Iraqis fear it's only temporary. And the Sadrists, who have so far cooperated in Maliki's Amara campaign, say their relationship with the government is still far from friendly...