Iraqi Troops Put On Show Of Strength In Sadr City
BAGHDAD - Iraqi soldiers took up positions on rooftops and military helicopters hovered overhead Friday in a show of strength in a Baghdad district where Shiite militiamen once ruled the streets. There were no reports of violence.
The heavy deployment in Sadr City coincided with Friday prayers held by followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who often use the occasion to criticize the American-backed government.
Thousands of worshippers gathered to hear a sermon by Sheik Mohanned al-Mousawi, an al-Sadr ally who complained about arrests of the cleric’s supporters by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. But al-Mousawi urged restraint in keeping with a truce that ended fighting in Sadr City in May after a crackdown by the Iraqi military.
“We call on all brothers to be up to the responsibility and be committed to our leader’s orders,” al-Mousawi said.
Al-Sadr has lived in Iran for more than a year, deepening the uncertainty over the future of his militia, the Mahdi Army.
On Thursday, gunmen killed a mid-level aide to al-Sadr in the New Baghdad district in the capital, said a police official and an official with the cleric’s organization.
Sheik Safaa al-Lami was shot in his car about a mile from the district’s police station, where he had gone to ask about a detained member of al-Sadr’s movement, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
The assailants used a pistol with a silencer to shoot al-Lami from a speeding car, the officials said. A friend who was with al-Lami escaped unharmed.
Also Friday, the White House said that the United States and Iraq have agreed to seek “a general time horizon” for deeper reductions in American combat troops in Iraq.
Iraqi officials, in a sign of growing confidence as violence decreases, have pressed the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. President Bush has opposed a timeline, and the White House said the timeframe being discussed would not be “an arbitrary date for withdrawal.”
(AP)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
Great image Drill
July 18th, 2008 at 2:49 pmI just read several news pieces on Iraq by the Washington Post and the AP, posted on msnbc.com. And they go something like this:
“Gloom, despair, and agony on Iraq!
Deep, dark, depression, excessive misery!
If Iraq had no bad luck, it’d have no luck at all!
Gloom, despair, and agony on Iraq!”
I’ve never read such transparent attempts to “talk down” the incredible success that has been achieved by our troops in Iraq and paint it as negatively as possible, I believe for political cover for Barack Osama, just as he’s flying there to take a look at it.
I have a feeling that we’re all going to be in for a propaganda offensive by the MSM to try and diss everything good that has happened there over the last year. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to buy it, because they don’t know how (or care) to read and just watch the tube.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:40 pmthats great news when the military can roll into Sadr City without a shot being fired. the Iraq war is a victory. but i think the Democrats will somehow try and take credit for it even though they have called it a failure and said the war was lost repeatedly
July 18th, 2008 at 4:34 pm