Word: sadr
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...policy dispute with the U.S., and a sense of betrayal. They promised him, last summer when they launched the major security offensive to retake Baghdad, that the U.S. would take care of Sunni guerrilla movement in Baghdad before moving against Mahdi Army [the Shi'ite militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, whose stronghold is in Baghdad]. That way, Maliki could to go to the Shi'ite elders in Baghdad and say, you are safe, you no longer need militias and they are a source of discord, so they must be disbanded. But the Americans failed to dislodge the Sunni insurgents...
...Later that day, I tried to go to the Green Zone to get my press credentials, but got stuck in a traffic jam caused by the U.S. snatch of Sheik Mazin al-Saedi - a top aide to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr detained on suspicion of involvement in sectarian killings by Shi'ite militia. Sitting in traffic in downtown Baghdad is far more nerve-wracking than rolling down even the most dangerous road in the area. You wonder if there are any car bombs amid the traffic around you as you eye the gridlock. You wonder...
...become a familiar Green Zone farce. Beholden to the very militias he has vowed to crush, the increasingly hamstrung prime minister has forced U.S. troops guarding the city to don kid gloves when dealing with the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, which has been blamed for much of the sectarian violence that kills an average of 100 Iraqis a day. And there is palpable frustration among U.S. soldiers patrolling the streets of Baghdad that every time they strike against the Mahdi Army, they are publicly scolded by the Iraqi prime minister...
...Moqtada al-Sadr commands enough seats in the Iraqi parliament to topple the prime minister, which is what makes his Mahdi Army untouchable. Still, few in Baghdad doubt that the Mahdi Army is conducting a campaign of organized violence against Iraq's Sunnis. TIME has uncovered evidence of a Mahdi Army program of ethnic cleansing designed to drive Sunnis out of mixed neighborhoods. As a member of a Shi'ite Islamist party himself, al-Maliki dares not incur the wrath of his own community. The last Iraqi leader who tried to face down al-Sadr, former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi...
...suggested Khalilzad's statement was motivated by political considerations that had more to do with the American midterm elections due next month than any real deal. " We are not much concerned with it, " he said. The defiance plays well with al-Maliki's political allies: al-Sadr and other Shi'ite Islamists. But it leaves other groups, including Sunnis, Kurds and secular Iraqis - and not a few observers in Washington - wondering whether the prime minister can stop his country from descending into a total sectarian...