No End in Sight to Sadr City Resistance
There is still no end in sight after seven weeks of fighting Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Sadr City, reports Bill Roggio on The Long War Journal. U.S. Army units building a three-mile-long wall through Sadr City continue to meet heavy resistance.
The attacks occurred during construction on the barrier along Qods Street, the main thoroughfare that divides the southern third of Sadr City from the northern neighborhoods. The US military used air weapons teams armed with Hellfire missiles, Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and infantry to beat back the attacks.
What is the fighting about? Sadr’s followers accuse their rivals, especially the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), a powerful Shiite party led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, of using the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces in an attempt to alter the balance of political power before provincial elections scheduled for October. The combination of ISCI and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party is known as the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
It remains to be seen if the Sadrists have been weakened or if they have actually gained support among Iraqis by holding ground against a determined offensive by eight U.S. battalions and various units loyal to the Maliki government.
Smoke rises from a building hit by a U.S. Hellfire missile in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 12, 2008. The building that was used by insurgent snipers was just north of the 12-foot concrete barrier that is being built along a main street dividing southern Sadr city from north, where Mahdi Army fighters are concentrated. U.S. commanders hope the wall will effectively cut off insurgents ability to move freely around Baghdad and hamper their ability to fire rockets at the Green Zone. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
One indisputable result of the fighting: hundreds of noncombatant casualties, widespread destruction by air strikes and artillery, and thousands made homeless. Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post offers a glimpse of the plight of civilians displaced by the Sadr City offensive.
[T]wo women clad in head-to-toe black abayas walked in clutching two photos of a car riddled with bullet holes, its body crushed. They said U.S. troops had shot at the car, then driven over it with a tank.
“My husband was killed,” one of the women said. “I have six kids, and my husband used to be a taxi driver. So what can I do?”
A couple of dozen families have found refuge in a soccer stadium that was set up as a temporary camp a week ago by the Maliki government. Most have stayed away because they distrust the regime.
“We wish we could go back today to our house,” Sabah said. “But the American soldiers are standing across the street from our house. Once you step out of the house, you will be shot by the snipers.”
A widely-heralded May 12 cease-fire agreement between the Sadrists and the UIA has yet to end the fighting, because the U.S. government was not a party to the agreement. In fact, the deal omits any mention of Americans except to warn that “foreign forces” are to have no role in providing security in Sadr City. Aside from a promise to halt the mortar and rocket bombardments of the Green Zone, the Mahdi Army did not commit to stop fighting. They agreed to allow Iraqi units to peacefully enter the city if unaccompanied.
For their part, the U.S. military seems determined to continue the offensive for the time being rather than leave Sadr City under the control of an anti-occupation Shiite militia.
Previous One Utah post: U.S. Ignoring Sadr City Cease Fire (May 11, 2008)
UPDATE: Sadr City conditions worsen, according to a reporter who “asked to remain anonymous because of security concerns.”
UPDATE: Michael Gordon of the New York Times reports on the “daily battle of attrition” as the Sadr City wall nears completion.
The formal truce that was announced in the Green Zone with great fanfare on Monday has meant nothing here. Shiite militias have been trying to blast gaps in the wall, firing at the American troops who are completing it and maneuvering to pick off the Iraqi soldiers who have been charged with keeping an eye on the partition.
American forces have answered with tank rounds, helicopter rocket strikes and even satellite-guided bombs to try to silence the militia fire. On some stretches, the urban landscape has been transformed as the Americans have leveled buildings militia fighters have used as perches to mount their attacks.
