Word: sadr
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Jamila market had become an abandoned dusty lot as the blasts of missiles, mortars and gunfire rattled the surrounding buildings in Baghdad's Sadr City. That was two months ago, at the height of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's military campaign in the fiercely hostile Sadr City district of Baghdad. Today, Jamila Market is teeming with life. Vendor after vendor hawks piles of watermelons, cabbages, tomatoes, mint leaves and other foods. Shops along the walls behind the market sit with doors swung open, their display windows inviting shoppers to buy suits, purses, shoes, and cosmetics...
...dense and impoverished neighborhood, which houses an estimated 3 million people was easily Iraq's most devastated locale during the seven weeks of fighting that wracked the area as U.S.-backed government forces confronted the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. According to Nasser Hashem al-Saadi, a member of parliament aligned with al-Sadr, some 25,000 residents fled the area during that time...
...when Maliki and Sadr, for whom Sadr City has long been a political stronghold, struck a peace agreement in mid-May, the situation took a turn for the better. Under the deal, Iraqi forces were allowed to enter the district to pursue wanted criminals, so long as they abstained from "random" arrests, and the U.S. military stayed on the outskirts. In return, Sadr asked his Mahdi Army to lay down their weapons...
American and Iraqi efforts over the past two months have already removed sewage from Jamila market and improved electricity in the lower fifth of the city through the opening of a power sub-station, Cheadle says. The U.S. military has also provided compensation for home damage to 112 Sadr City families who filed claims - totalling...
...enters its sixth summer. While the GAO doesn't contradict a Pentagon report that indicates violence in Iraq has dropped significantly, it claims the improvement is based on a rickety foundation provided by the now slowing U.S. troop surge, a creaky cease-fire with Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a U.S.-led effort to recruit former insurgents for policing--not on any sustained reforms needed for lasting peace. The GAO says that only 10% of Iraqi army battalions have reached operational readiness, a claim the Pentagon calls "misleading." The Pentagon also criticizes the GAO for relying on "outdated...