Posted on 03/31/2008 9:35:19 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said.
Sadr ordered the halt on Sunday, and his Mahdi Army militia heeded the order in Baghdad, where the Iraqi government announced it would lift a 24-hour curfew starting early Monday in most parts of the capital.
But fighting continued in the oil hub of Basra, where a six-day-old government offensive against Shiite militias has had only limited gains.
So far, 488 people have been killed and more than 900 wounded in the offensive, Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said.
The backdrop to Sadr's dramatic statement was a secret trip Friday by Iraqi lawmakers to Qom, Iran's holy city and headquarters for the Iranian clergy who run the country.
There the Iraqi lawmakers held talks with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Qods (Jerusalem) brigades of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and signed an agreement with Sadr, which formed the basis of his statement Sunday, members of parliament said.
Ali al Adeeb, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Dawa party, and Hadi al Ameri, the head of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, had two aims, lawmakers said: to ask Sadr to stand down his militia and to ask Iranian officials to stop supplying weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq.
"The statement issued today by (Muqtada al Sadr) is a result of the meetings," said Jalal al-Din al Saghir, a leading member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. "The government didn't have any disagreement with the Sadrists when it went to the city of Basra.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
News ping!
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1726489,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Sources in Basra tell TIME that there has been a large-scale retreat of the Mahdi Army in the oil-rich Iraqi port city because of low morale and because ammunition is low due to the closure of the Iranian border. TIME has not yet been able to confirm those reports with U.S., Mahi Army or Iraqi government authorities.
NEVER DOUBT MCCLATHY’S INABILITY TO REPORT ANYTHING POSITIVE.
Oh PLZ
Did Maliki’s government sell him out?
Almost all the killed, wounded and the forgot to mention captured was from Sadr's Militia. Sadr and Iran knew the jig was up. If Iran stops shipping weapons as had to have been agreed on then this Sadr stand down will have effectively split the Iranian Persian Shiites with the Iraqi Arab Shiites.
Related link:
This was quoted this morning.
*********************EXCERPT********************
Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2008 By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
One of the armor-piercing roadside bombs in Iraq has a nickname among the militants who place the device. They call it the Najadia, a short variation on the long name of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "My group and I believe honestly in fighting the Americans — and getting financial benefit out of it," says Hussein Ali, an Iraqi Shi'ite guerrilla who recounted a journey to Iran for training in explosives in an interview with TIME. "We became very professional in planting and using the mine called BMZ2, which is a Russian mine modified in Iran for use against the American armor."
Despite a drop in violence across Iraq, U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington have kept up accusations against Iran, saying Tehran is involved in nothing less than training and funding a shadow army of Shi'ite militants set against U.S. forces in Iraq. In the face of these U.S. assertions, the Iraqi government publicly says it has no evidence of an Iranian training program for Iraqi militants. "We don't have the proof that the American have," says Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "Normally the intelligence information the Americans have is not allowed to circulate." The issue was also not discussed, al-Dabbagh says, in official talks during Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Baghdad, where the Iranian leader enjoyed a warm reception that reflected deepening ties between Iran and Iraq. Iran has offered unflinching denials of subversive and anti-U.S. activity in Iraq.
For months, a range of U.S. officials in Baghdad have repeatedly aired allegations against Iran in public while offering almost no convincing proof, arguing that doing so would reveal classified information. Military officials in Iraq have told TIME that militia fighters in U.S. custody have admitted to training in Iran during interrogations but refuse to give further details. However, recent interviews by TIME with Iraqi militants who recounted visits to Iran for training largely (though not perfectly) fit patterns described by American officials in Baghdad and Washington regarding Tehran's role.
According to U.S. claims, Iraqi recruits from the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and other militias have traveled in groups numbering between 20 and 60 to Iran in a training program organized by the Quds Force that dates back to 2004. Handlers from the Quds Force, an elite paramilitary wing of the Iranian army, allegedly transport recruits to training camps near Tehran.
Sadre needs to suffer from a fall off a cliff.
Troops and police, whom the U.S. and Britain have backed, are in control of much of Basra, and local security forces are going house-to-house in some districts to confiscate weapons and chase “the outlaws and the criminal and smuggling gangs,” the spokesman said.
The Shiite militia members that were in the streets have withdrawn, al-Askari said.***
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/31/iraq.main/index.html
Interesting that the MSM claimed Sadr's Militia controlled 75% of Basra just 2 days ago but now claim Iraqi Troops control the streets. I take one thing from this, Sadr got his butt kicked.
McClatchy alert. This same author was handing a victory to the Mahdi army last week. It doesn’t mean anything she writes is to be discounted but bring a bucket of salt.
ping
Let’s watch for a report from Roggio so we find out what is really going on.
Thanks Ernest.
Iran has “advised” some of the leaders like Sadr for years.
For example: In 2004 Sadr began causing trouble in Baghdad during the hand off between First Armored and First Cavalry Divisions. This was no coincidence as the Iraqi’s assumed more self responsibility, we shut down numerous posts in Baghdad, and the incoming unit is not completely situationally aware and running at full force. That’s the primary reason why 1AD was extended to 16 months, and those whispering some of these ideas into his ears are Iranians whom we had identified.
Some of the bad players in Iraq (Shi’ia) are fed intelligence and advised by Iran, which is a primary function in such an asymmetrical war. Logistics, intelligence, advising, training, safe haven, and financing are the major tenets of such a game that Iran plays.
(Functions broken down)
Logistics: Supply sniper rifles, IR sensors, GPS, NVGs, mortar rounds, newer rockets, EFPs, etc. Intelligence: feed locations of coalition units, composition, disposition, boundaries, timelines, MSRs etc. Advising: supply leadership with decision support functions to increase their effectiveness as well techniques and procedures to maximize the effectiveness of these surrogates (i.e. how to best set up an ambush, avoid largescale direct confrontation force on force…..). Safe havens: Allow for Iran to be used as a base of training, medical care, and as general safe haven such as Sadr who fled there several times. Which ties into training, since in Iran you have people being instructed how to conduct some of these operations. Financing: Supply money to pay bribes, hire militia etc. Ultimately what happens is that someone like Sadr becomes a surrogate of Iran, which plays him like a chess piece, as they do Hezbollah.
Other examples: When we cranked up the heat in 2004 on Sadr, he fled south to areas right across boundary lines placing him in Polish controlled areas. Hopping these boundaries makes it more difficult for coordination etc when going after him. When pressed with his back to the wall years later he fled to Iran, where he hid out until it was safe again and he could return.
It’s the face of “proxy war,” and the media is part of the battlefield.
(sorry for the dbl post!)
Yes, and if true, it was simply because Sadr and his Iranian supported militias were about to get their asses handed to them.
Which should happen, it will be the only solution possible in the long run.
Iranian Influence on Cease Fire?
******************EXCERPT*********************
The tabloid newspaper McClatchy has a report out today that two lawmakers from the Iraqi government, one from Maliki’s party and another from the Badr party, went to Iran to negotiate a end to hostilities in Basra.
********************snip*******************
Which, if true, is fascinating. On the one hand this means Iran can turn off the internal fighting when and where it wants to. So, as Jules Crittenden puts it, Iraq is Iran’s bitch in the absence of American forces. But the same article does say that some of Sadr’s thugs have said they have no intention of standing down. How much influence then does Iran really have? I’m guessing the coming days will tell us.
On the other hand can anyone still claim Iran is not the one stirring the pot in the first place AND not supplying those who attack our troops?
Either way, Sadr was getting his butt kicked by the Iraqi army and Jules takes on the NYT’s notion that Maliki agreed to a negotiated end to hostilities:
Interesting side note. This NYT article, which does not have any Qom-plea backstory, like other reporting on the Sadr stand-down declares al-Maliki the loser for agreeing to a negotiated end to hostilities. This is odd because he does not in fact appear to have agreed to end hostilities or to have surrendered his disarmament demand. But more so because the common anti-war media and political wisdom is that the United States wins by negotiating an end to hostilities, leaving adversaries in place, without achieving its goals militarily. Can we all get on the same peacenik playbook page, please?
Heh…
Firsthand Look at Basra Shows Value of White Flag
***********What a strange title******************
US army kills 40 in a day
Baghdad - US troops killed more than 40 Iraqis in one day, including 25 “criminals” who had attacked US soldiers, the military reported on Monday in Baghdad.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=nw20080331085658346C797276&set_id=6
........................................................
Sadr fighters vanish from Iraq’s streets
9 hours ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Gun-toting fighters of hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr melted away from Iraqi streets on Monday after week-long clashes with security forces that killed at least 461 people.
Following six days of intense fighting with security forces, Sadr on Sunday reined in his fighters, signalling an end to the firefights which Washington hailed as a “positive step” by the cleric.
AFP correspondents in Baghdad and Basra said the militants had disappeared on Monday and that fighting which had rocked the two cities and several other Shiite regions since last Tuesday had died down.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqEfp4thTYVouIrEhHNKIXSAF-8Q
..................................................
How ‘bout a headline that tells a positive perspective about our allies instead of ours’ and their enemy? “Iranian general played key role in brokering Iraq cease-fire”.
How ‘bout something along the lines of: “Iraqi Leaders Negotiate Cease Fire.”
Leave it to Leftist McClatchy to avoid all possible any positive steps by the Iraqi’s.
This is impossible. The lamestream media assured us that Iran was not getting involved with Iraq.
What did he say.....”Don’t Kill me Bro”...lol
Al-Qaeda gloats at UK retreat from Basra
December 17 2007 at 08:33AM
Washington - Britain's decision to "flee" Iraq shows the insurgency is stronger than ever, Al-Qaeda's number two said in a video released on Sunday.
In a 98-minute Al-Qaeda videotape with English subtitles, Ayman Al-Zawahiri said recent reports from Iraq reveal "an increase in the strength of the Mujahideen and a deterioration in the Americans' conditions, despite their desperate attempts to deceive and mislead.
"And the decision of the British to flee is sufficient" proof, Zawahiri said. The video clip was given to AFP by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private US company.
Iraq formally took security control of the southern oil province of Basra from British forces on Sunday, paving the way for Britain to sharply reduce its troop presence of nearly 5 000.
Basra, the ninth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to local control by the US-led coalition, is the fourth and final province under British control since the 2003 invasion to be transferred. - Sapa-AFP
Special Operations Firefight in Iraq ( Special Forces )
Link to Firefight Video....
The Firefight Video was from Sadr City ...date and time was not disclosed....but it is very intense....
So if Qom is bombed, think it will quiet down in Iraq?
McCain needs to win in November for that to happen....
Not just Him but a whole lot of them need to.
Agree. Bill will present the facts, with no embroidery.
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