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US cracks down on sadr mahdi army { January 23 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4e7cd970-ab03-11db-b5db-0000779e2340.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/4e7cd970-ab03-11db-b5db-0000779e2340.html
US cracks down on Iraq’s Shia militants
By Steve Negus, Iraq correspondent
Published: January 23 2007 17:54 | Last updated: January 23 2007 17:54
More than 600 members of Iraq’s Mahdi Army are in detention awaiting prosecution, the US military announced in a statement late on Monday – the latest indication that operations against the radical Shia militia have been stepped up and that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has withdrawn political protection from the group.
The statement is unusual in that it detailed the number of operations against specific organisations and seems intended to show that there is a new emphasis on neutralising the Mahdi Army. It said that in the past 45 days, the US-led coalition and Iraqi security forces had carried out 52 operations focused primarily against the militia, compared to 42 targeting Sunni insurgents.
Mr Maliki has been accused of failing to act on his government’s seven-month-old pledge to demobilise militias, but in the last two weeks his aides have hinted that the prime minister had authorised a crackdown on the Mahdi Army, some of whose commanders are believed to be responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of Sunni.
Mr Maliki may have decided that he needed to move against the militia to avoid losing US support and to avoid further alienating Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbours, or because he feels that his support among the Shia has been strengthened after the execution of Saddam Hussein.
Reaction from the Sadrists’ political branch has been surprisingly muted, with parliamentarians on Sunday ending a two-month long boycott of the government even though a key Sadrist spokesman had been arrested the day before.
The Sadrists’ apparent acquiescence to the dismantling of their military wing however might not last, if Sunni insurgents succeed in striking at Shia civilian targets. Many Shia consider Mahdi Army roadblocks, and Mahdi Army strikes against Sunni insurgent mosques, to be their best defence against the car bombers who have killed thousands over the past few years.
Bombers on Tuesday struck two separate Shia targets in the capital, killing at least five people, and on Monday a double car bombing in a Baghdad market district left at least 88 dead, the bloodiest attack in two months. The bombings are particularly sensitive as they come at the beginning of the month of Muharram, during which Shia commemorate the seventh-century martyrdom of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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