Into Sadr City

The Forth Rail ^ | 3/1/07 | Bill Roggio

[bnelson44]

The absence of U.S. forces inside Sadr City, the stronghold of radical, Iranian backed Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has been a glaring anomaly to those watching the development of the Baghdad Security Plan. Iraqi and U.S. forces have focused on deploying in the mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods where the sectarian violence and al-Qaeda suicide attacks have been the greatest. But all of this is about to change. U.S. and Iraqi forces will enter Sadr City in the next few days, establish at least one Joint Security Station, and begin clearing the neighborhoods, Reuters reports.

...

The move into comes as Major General Bill Caldwell, the Multinational Forces Iraq (MNF-I) spokesman, announced that "talks with commanders of Muqtada al-Sadr's Al-Mahdi Army with the 'Iraqi Government's blessing,'" are now under way.

Multinational Forces Iraq and the Iraqi government are working to divide and conquer Sadr's Mahdi Army, and the upcoming push into Sadr City is but the latest move in the operation, which has been ongoing since last summer.

[bnelson44]

[bnelson44]

ping

[Williams]

A glaring anomoly? The whole operation just started a couple of weeks ago. I swear, video games and tv have doomed us.

[bnelson44]

I think he was talking about last year.

[bnelson44]

or maybe not

But keep an eye out at his website for updates. This may get a bit dicey before it is over.

[bnelson44]

ping

[Anti-Bubba182]

This is a big deal! I hope it succeeds.

[bnelson44]

Baghdad has been relatively quiet over the past 24 hours, and no major mass casualty suicide attacks or car bomb atacks have been reported. It is far too soon to translate this into long term success, however, as al Qaeda has shown the capacity to 'surge' mass casualty attacks in the city after periods of calm. As we noted earlier in the week, the United States still has four combat brigades to deploy, and the Iraqis still have four combat battalions to move into Baghdad. The U.S. soldiers of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division have just arrived in Baghdad.

To keep the violence down, Iraqi and U.S. forces will need to maintain the checkpoints and searches in Baghdad, and continue or initiate offensive actions against insurgent strongholds in Diyala, Anbar, and south of the city. There is evidence offensive operations outside of the capital are taking place. Eight were killed and 11 wounded in clashes between Iraqi police and insurgents in Iskandariya. An unconfirmed report by the Interior Ministry indicates 80 insurgents were killed and 50 captured during clashes between Iraqi security forces and insurgents in a town outside Fallujah. U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 10 insurgents and captured 5 in Muqdadiya. In Mosul, a curfew was imposed so U.S. and Iraqi security forces could conduct a cordon and search operation. Coalition forces (the hunter-killer teams of Task Force 145) maintain the hunt for al Qaeda operatives, killing 3 and capturing 16 in operations in Baghdad, Ramadi, and Bayji.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/03/daily_iraq_report_for_march_1.asp

[pissant]

That is not quite accurate. They made several forays into Sadr City already.

[bnelson44]

According to the AEI report previous to the Bush announcement on the surge, this was the most dangerous part of the plan.

[bnelson44]

This time, they plan on staying.

[Mac94]

Why is this being reported BEOFRE the fact? Let's let the enemy either prepare to fight or go to ground. Either way, the ob of our brave troops is only made harder in either the short run or long run by these reports. Do we just not care aboout the element of suprise anymore?

[bnelson44]

I don't know, but it is being announced by the PAO.

[pissant]

Good! And just like most places we go and stay put, the population will soon realize who the good guys are.

[cake_crumb]

"The absence of U.S. forces inside Sadr City, the stronghold of radical, Iranian backed Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has been a glaring anomaly to those watching the development of the Baghdad Security Plan."

IMO, this was due to the chronic mediaphobia from which this administration suffers.

Besides, there is no troop surge...Pelosi and Murphy say so, so it must be true.

[r9etb]

Why is this being reported BEOFRE the fact?

I'm thinking it's so the women and children will have an excuse to leave. Makes it easier for our guys to operate.

[narby]

The absence of U.S. forces inside Sadr City, the stronghold of radical, Iranian backed Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has been a glaring anomaly

I've noticed this kind of thing several times before. As when we started actions inside Fallugah, then pulled out for a couple of months before we went back in and cleaned up.

The military isn't stupid. I think this is a deliberate tactic. I think the idea is to target a place, let them know we're targeting a place, the 72 virgin crowd will congregate there so they have their glory in battle against the great satan, then we wax them. It lets the innocent people leave, and the bad guys congregate, then we eliminate them. Of course the "leaders" aren't there, just the 72 virgin idiots. We have to get the leaders another way.

[bnelson44]

ping

[cake_crumb]

It's being reported AFTER the fact, to make the administration look incompetent because everyone knows Iraq is Viet Nam. 'Course everyone KNEW Afghanistan was Vietnam too, but the entire world tends to forget that cesspool exists unless there's some incident they can bash Bush with, like the alleged assassination attempt on Cheney that kiled 2, 8, 20 or "over 20" depending on which media report you read.

God bless our troops. They need it to counter the "progressives" and third partiests.

[mdittmar]

It will get dicey,but as in Afghanistan, we will win.

And as in Afghanistan ,the old media will move on,like they always do.