Posted on 04/18/2008 9:16:34 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
AFP - 4 hours ago
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi troops were in a tense standoff with radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters on Friday after they surrounded an office block occupied by the group in the southern city of Basra.
The move was blasted by Sadr's supporters as a "provocation" but the Iraqi government said the operation only aimed to recover offices unfairly occupied by political groups.
The incident comes only weeks after bloody fighting broke out on March 25 between Iraqi forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the port city.
The clashes spread to other Shiite regions of Iraq, killing and wounding hundreds of people.
"The police and the army have laid siege to Sadr's office in Basra," office head Sheikh Harith al-Athari told AFP. "They have also stopped people from attending Friday prayers.
"The forces, backed by armoured vehicles, have asked us to leave the building," he added.
Journalists reported Sadr supporters had refused to leave the office block in the oil city, which lies about 550 kilometres (340 miles) south of the capital.
Interior ministry spokesman General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP the operation had been approved by Maliki and aimed to "recover official buildings that were being occupied."
Salah al-Oubeidi, a Sadr spokesman from the holy city of Najaf, in central Iraq, said "it is a provocation that will induce people to resort to force.
"The objective of the security forces is to further aggravate tensions and it shows the government's claims that it is not targeting Sadr supporters to be false," he added.
Gas ‘em out then light ‘em up.
I wonder what they’re hiding in the building(s), other than themselves.
Heavy weapons? Millions in loot stolen from the Iraqi/Basrani peoples? Iranians?...
< shrug > C'est la guerre
Having to re-build is a small price to pay for getting rid of Mookie's goons.
This is getting better all the time. Sadr and his thugs don’t have any help coming from any quarter. Sistani has abandoned him, the Iranians are being blocked by the US forces on the border and the Iraqi government realizes that the unity they have of most Shites and other Iraqis needs to be exercised now.
No quarter, no mercy. Take the thugs out.
Sounds like a situation tailor-made for Janet Reno.
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