Word: sadr
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...chaos in the capital and in the south of the country. The Iraqi government has placed the city under a curfew, banning all civilian vehicle use, until Sunday morning. The south of Iraq, where heavy fighting between Iraqi forces and militias loyal to powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has raged since Tuesday, is also under curfew. Over one hundred people are reported to have been killed, and hundreds more injured, as Iraqi forces led by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki struggle to take control of the city...
...media liaison for Iraqi forces in Basra, Colonel Abbas Ahmed, told TIME that Iraqi forces control about 75% of the city and that they have captured "many fighters from the Mahdi Army [Sadr's militia]." Coalition forces are currently providing air and logistical support to Iraqi forces in Basra, but whether or not Iraq would request more substantial ground support in the coming days "would depend on the situation," he confirmed...
News from the south of Iraq was no less grim. In Basra, Iraqi forces pressed their three-day offensive against what both Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to call "criminal elements." Spokesmen for Moqtada al-Sadr have openly denounced the military campaign and called for the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces. In what is widely regarded as an effort to maintain the precarious ceasefire renewed by Sadr in February, both coalition forces and the Iraqi military have carefully avoided referring to the armed fighters as Sadr's supporters, but rather as unaffiliated criminals and thugs. "The operation in Basra...
Indeed, though the rockets that hit the Green Zone are believed to have emanated from the Mahdi Army Sadr City stronghold, the U.S. embassy would not say where they were originating from "for security reasons." It is not known whether the U.S. military was moving against the perpetrators of the attack. It is known, however, that Iraqi police have clashed with Sadrists in Sadr City...
Wire sources also reported that a suicide bomber attacked the convoy of Basra police commander Abdul Jalil Khalaf. Khalaf was unharmed but three other police were killed. Sadr supporters also clashed with Iraqi police in the southern towns of Hilla and Kut. With a curfew now in place across southern Iraq and in Baghdad, few in the Iraqi capital see a drop in the renewed violence coming anytime soon...