lily
03-26-2008, 09:25 PM
Well, now we'll see if the Iraqi government has any credibility. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/26/AR2008032600643.html?hpid=topnews)
Iraqi PM Gives Basra Gunmen Ultimatum
Rocket Attacks Hit Green Zone
By Sholnn Freeman and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 26, 2008; 11:39 AM
BAGHDAD, March 26 -- Clashes continued Wednesday between Iraqi security
forces and Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki laid down a deadline for gunmen to surrender and fresh
rocket attacks hit Baghdad's Green Zone.
The U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital said that three Americans were badly
hurt by the latest strikes in the Green Zone, a fortified area that houses
the U.S. Embassy compound and the Iraqi government, according to the
Associated Press. No further details were immediately available. Mortars and
rockets have struck the Green Zone and other U.S. positions repeatedly since
Sunday, with U.S. officials reporting 12 strikes Tuesday.
According to wire reports, as many as 55 people have died during the past
two days in intense clashes that began in Basra as part of an Iraqi
government crackdown on Shiite militias in the area, particularly the Mahdi
Army of hard-line cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Violence subsequently spread to
Shiite areas in Baghdad and other cities.
The operation in Basra won praise Tuesday from the White House, where
spokeswoman Dana Perino referred to it as a "brave decision" by Maliki to
assert Iraqi government control over an important port city that serves as
the country's gateway to the Persian Gulf.
According to wire service reports, Maliki issued a statement giving gunmen
in Basra three days to give up their weapons and renounce further violence.
Those who don't, said a Maliki aide, will be targeted for arrest in the
ongoing security operation.
Speaking about the Basra offensive, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin
Bergner said, "Initial reports are that they are making progress." But he
cautioned that it was still too early to grade the success of the operation.
"A large part of the determination will be the citizens of Basra and how
they respond," Bergner said at a briefing Wednesday in the Green Zone. He
said Iraq has moved an additional 2,000 troops to Basra. A British military
spokesman said Tuesday that Iraqi police and military troops in the area
total 16,700, including national policemen, special forces and military
police.
Bergner called the rocket attacks against the Green Zone "criminal activity"
and said U.S. weapons teams had stopped eight intended rocket attacks
targeting the Green Zone and located a stockpile of the weapons.
Iraqi forces were backed by U.S. and British reconnaissance planes as they
launched their Basra offensive, an operation aimed at breaking the power of
politically backed gunmen in the city.
The fiercest fighting took place in Basra neighborhoods where Iraqi forces
targeted members of Sadr's Mahdi Army, further risking the collapse of a
cease-fire that Sadr declared last summer. His fighters' stand-down has been
widely credited with helping curb violence throughout the country during the
U.S. troop buildup known as the surge.
When the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and Ambassador
Ryan C. Crocker deliver a report card on the country before Congress next
month, a key gauge of progress will be whether the Iraqi government and its
security forces are prepared to take over as U.S. troops withdraw.
The offensive in Basra, an important test of that preparedness, was several
weeks in the making. Altough it targets the Mahdi Army in particular, its
goal is also to break the grip that other Shiite militias, criminal gangs
and death squads hold upon the southern port city, the conduit for Iraq's
oil exports. In recent weeks, the militias have often battled one another in
the streets.
Iraqi PM Gives Basra Gunmen Ultimatum
Rocket Attacks Hit Green Zone
By Sholnn Freeman and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 26, 2008; 11:39 AM
BAGHDAD, March 26 -- Clashes continued Wednesday between Iraqi security
forces and Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki laid down a deadline for gunmen to surrender and fresh
rocket attacks hit Baghdad's Green Zone.
The U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital said that three Americans were badly
hurt by the latest strikes in the Green Zone, a fortified area that houses
the U.S. Embassy compound and the Iraqi government, according to the
Associated Press. No further details were immediately available. Mortars and
rockets have struck the Green Zone and other U.S. positions repeatedly since
Sunday, with U.S. officials reporting 12 strikes Tuesday.
According to wire reports, as many as 55 people have died during the past
two days in intense clashes that began in Basra as part of an Iraqi
government crackdown on Shiite militias in the area, particularly the Mahdi
Army of hard-line cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Violence subsequently spread to
Shiite areas in Baghdad and other cities.
The operation in Basra won praise Tuesday from the White House, where
spokeswoman Dana Perino referred to it as a "brave decision" by Maliki to
assert Iraqi government control over an important port city that serves as
the country's gateway to the Persian Gulf.
According to wire service reports, Maliki issued a statement giving gunmen
in Basra three days to give up their weapons and renounce further violence.
Those who don't, said a Maliki aide, will be targeted for arrest in the
ongoing security operation.
Speaking about the Basra offensive, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin
Bergner said, "Initial reports are that they are making progress." But he
cautioned that it was still too early to grade the success of the operation.
"A large part of the determination will be the citizens of Basra and how
they respond," Bergner said at a briefing Wednesday in the Green Zone. He
said Iraq has moved an additional 2,000 troops to Basra. A British military
spokesman said Tuesday that Iraqi police and military troops in the area
total 16,700, including national policemen, special forces and military
police.
Bergner called the rocket attacks against the Green Zone "criminal activity"
and said U.S. weapons teams had stopped eight intended rocket attacks
targeting the Green Zone and located a stockpile of the weapons.
Iraqi forces were backed by U.S. and British reconnaissance planes as they
launched their Basra offensive, an operation aimed at breaking the power of
politically backed gunmen in the city.
The fiercest fighting took place in Basra neighborhoods where Iraqi forces
targeted members of Sadr's Mahdi Army, further risking the collapse of a
cease-fire that Sadr declared last summer. His fighters' stand-down has been
widely credited with helping curb violence throughout the country during the
U.S. troop buildup known as the surge.
When the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and Ambassador
Ryan C. Crocker deliver a report card on the country before Congress next
month, a key gauge of progress will be whether the Iraqi government and its
security forces are prepared to take over as U.S. troops withdraw.
The offensive in Basra, an important test of that preparedness, was several
weeks in the making. Altough it targets the Mahdi Army in particular, its
goal is also to break the grip that other Shiite militias, criminal gangs
and death squads hold upon the southern port city, the conduit for Iraq's
oil exports. In recent weeks, the militias have often battled one another in
the streets.