Word: basra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Baghdad Tuesday morning, in anticipation of a million-strong march against the U.S. occupation called by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. His Mahdi Army had been engaged in weeks of violent clashes with U.S. and Iraqi government forces in the capital and in the southern city of Basra, and many in the capital feared the worst. But on Tuesday afternoon, Sadr suddenly called off the demonstration, declaring in a statement, "I'm calling on the beloved Iraqi people who are willing to demonstrate against the occupation to postpone this demonstration out of my fear for them and my concern...
...Both Democratic presidential candidates will be able to point to the recent fighting in the southern city of Basra as evidence of poor Iraqi leadership and ill-prepared and unmotivated U.S.-trained Iraqi troops. While Iran helped negotiate a deal that curbed the fighting in Basra, Tehran continues to supply Shi'ite groups linked to cleric Moqtada al Sadr with lethal weapons and training that continue to take a toll on U.S. forces, Pentagon officials say. That, they add glumly, suggests Iran could continue a game of hard-nosed cat-and-mouse for as long as U.S. troops...
...recent violence in Basra shows how tenuous what passes for peace in Iraq really is. And William Odom, a retired three-star Army general, has spelled out just how shaky that alliance with the Sunnis is. "Our new Sunni friends insist on being paid for their loyalty," Odom told the Senate Foreign Relations committee last Wednesday. He cited one estimate that the U.S. military is paying a local strongman $250,000 a day to keep the peace in a 36-square mile swath of the country. "Remember, we do not own these people, we rent them - and they can break...
...Coming in the wake of the resolution to last week's fighting in Basra, this latest move only confirms to many Sadr's breath of power and the limits of Maliki's. Three days into his poorly executed military campaign on Basra - initially commended by Washington as a decisive show of strength by the government - the Prime Minister extended by ten days a deadline for militants to lay down their arms. Now, despite what the U.S. Embassy and Coalition forces have called a successful run in Basra, Maliki appears to have eased the pressure off the Mahdi Army entirely...
...Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told reporters that the government's initiative in Basra had been a positive development, but also admitted that "gains here [in Iraq] are fragile." He said Maliki was "pretty sober" on his return from Basra, and was "not coming back in any kind of triumphal spirit...