Word: militiaization
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...statement was the first hopeful sign of a possible end to the conflict that the Iraqi and American governments originally billed as a battle against criminal gangs in Basra, but that escalated into a full-fledged fight with the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest militia. On Saturday the Iraqi government, the Mahdi Army and U.S. forces all escalated the fight, and the militia's seven-month-old cease-fire seemed on the brink of total collapse...
...Mahdi Army stiffened its military and rhetorical resistance, Maliki upped the ante as well. Saturday, during a televised meeting with tribal leaders in Basra, he accused enemy fighters in Basra of being "worse than al-Qaeda." It was an inflammatory and ironic statement, since the militia, in addition to its attacks on Sunni civilians and its criminal activities, has often defended Shi'ites from Sunni terrorists when the government proved powerless...
...Holloway also sought to clarify earlier remarks that had been interpreted in Western media reports to mean that the U.S. planes had dropped bombs in Basra. He told TIME Friday night that American planes used heavy machine guns - not explosives - to attack two militia positions. He said the first had been a mortar team that had been firing on Iraqi soldiers, while the second was a fortified position that Holloway said had been "teeming with enemy...
...Whatever the specific weapons used in the U.S. close air support operations in Basra, their significance is clear. Taken together with Friday's announcement by Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki that the three-day deadline he had originally given militia fighters to surrender their weapons had now been extended to 10 days (and that those who complied would be financially rewarded), the U.S. air strikes appear to indicate that the fighting has been tougher than Iraqi government officials had anticipated. And while they insist that the offensive is aimed only at "rogue elements" of the Madhi Army and other militias...
...United States, which had earlier emphasized that the offensive was the Iraqi government's initiative and responsibility, has now increased its political and military commitment to the operation's success. The longer the fighting in the south drags on, the greater the chance of an escalation in militia violence across the south and in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighborhoods - an escalation that could jeopardize many of the security gains made in the course of the U.S. troop surge...