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.
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