Mehdi Army dissolving, reports say
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Middle East Times
Friday, June 27, 2008
BAGHDAD, June 26 (UPI) -- The Mehdi Army of Moqtada Sadr is evolving into a clandestine movement following Iraqi military operations targeting the group, intelligence suggests.
The military wing of the Sadrist Movement, the political party loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, is "turning itself into a secret armed organization," an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News on condition of anonymity.
Iraqi intelligence reports suggest the group's numbers have dwindled from around 50,000 to as few as 150 in the past few years.
Intelligence officials credit decisions by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to launch military offensives against Shiite militants in the southern parts of the country as deterring the group. An Iraqi intelligence official reports as many as 2,000 Mehdi Army fighters were killed in recent operations in Basra, Sadr City and the provincial capital of Maysan, Amarah.
Maybe it is time for some mea culpa’s, even here on FR, about this guy. Maybe all of us were wrong and the people who decided not to take him out immediately when he acted up after the liberation were right?
Maybe at that time there would have been a general up rising? Now it seems he is going out with a whimper and the actions in Bassra and Sadr City were not nearly as costly as many feared.