Word: basra
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...Iraqi military's offensive in Basra was supposed to demonstrate the power of the central government in Baghdad. Instead it has proven the continuing relevance of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, stood its ground in several days of heavy fighting with Iraqi soldiers backed up by American and British air power. But perhaps more important than the manner in which the militia fought is the manner in which it stopped fighting. On Sunday Sadr issued a call for members of the Mahdi Army to stop appearing in the streets with their weapons...
...view of many American troops and officers, the Mahdi Army had splintered irretrievably into a collection of independent operators and criminal gangs. Now, however, the conclusion of the conflict in Basra shows that when Sadr speaks, the militia listens...
...fighting and the rhetoric had ramped up Saturday. As U.S. warplanes targeted militiamen in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the government's enemies in the south were "worse than al-Qaeda." A Sadrist spokesman then retorted that fighters should not surrender their weapons except to a government committed to ejecting U.S. troops from Iraq. But on Sunday, Sadr, in a statement released through his office in the holy city of Najaf, called on his followers to stop making "armed appearances." He said he hoped to avoid more bloodshed. This week's violence has claimed hundreds...
...evening if militants would stand down. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening rockets or mortars continued to sail into the heavily fortified Baghdad headquarters of the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government. A spokesman for the British military said that Iraqi requests for U.S. and British support in Basra had subsided but confirmed that more U.S. air strikes had been launched on Sunday...
That raises the prospect that even if the fighting does subside, the government's offensive will have accomplished little. Militants in Basra will have successfully defied the Iraqi Prime Minister's demand that they surrender, and his subsequent demand that they hand over their weapons. Rather than demonstrating the power of the central government and the weakness of Shi'ite factions, this week's violence may have demonstrated the opposite...