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What did the U.S. military offensive against Shiite militias in Sadr City in April 2008 and the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza last December have in common? A lot, apparently, and both operations are being held up by their respective militaries as models for a new way of battling irregular fighters in urban strongholds. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus likes to put up a PowerPoint slide in public briefings detailing the forces, intelligence and surveillance assets involved in the Sadr city battles as representative of a new way of fighting. “This is the answer,” Petraeus said at a...

BAGHDAD — A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ commander visited the Sadr City R3 Water Treatment Plant and its workers recently to check up on how the plant is operating. The USACE’s Gulf Region District (GRD) collaborates with Multi-National Corps – Iraq to provide engineering and construction management expertise to assist the government here with its infrastructure. "The Sadr City Water Treatment Plant is a vital community asset that supplies quality drinking water to over 500,000 citizens," said Col. Dan Anninos, GRD commander. "The plant takes existing raw water from the Tigris and properly treats it in order to eliminate...

SNIPPET: "Iraqi officials in Al Kut are seeking four suspected Iranian Qods Force operatives behind attacks on security forces. Members of the Iraqi security forces put up wanted posters with photos of the Iranian operates on the streets in an effort to detain the men. The Qods Force agents are wanted for "armed operations against Iraqi security personnel and civilians," an Iraqi security official told Voices of Iraq. "The security authorities in Kut appealed to local residents to report these dangerous persons who are wanted on charges of involvement in terrorist operations in Iraq." The campaign was announced the same...

BAGHDAD, Oct. 26, 2009 – Baghdad’s Sadr City district, home to more than 2 million Iraqis, was built by Saddam Hussein as a massive urban community to house the thousands of rural Iraqis migrating to the capital in search of jobs. But after decades of neglect, Sadr City’s residents lacked even the most basic needs, such as adequate potable water. A $65 million water treatment plant is designed to treat and purify water from the nearby Tigris River and provide more than 500,000 residents of Baghdad’s Sadr City district with potable water. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

Dozens killed in Iraqi bombings Aftermath of the bomb attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad More than 50 people have been killed in a series of bomb attacks in Iraq in the worst day of violence since US forces withdrew from urban areas on 30 June. The most lethal attack was in Talafar, near Mosul, where at least 34 people were killed and more than 60 injured in a double suicide bombing. In Baghdad, two attacks at markets left at least 16 dead. Several other people were killed in smaller attacks in the capital and in southern Kirkuk. The BBC's Gabriel...

Lt. Col. Timothy Karcher, commander, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, presents Sameer al Haddad, a representative from the Office of the Prime Minister of Iraq, a symbolic key signifying the transfer of responsibility of Joint Security Station Sadr City in northeast Baghdad during the official ceremony, June 20. Photo by Sgt. Shejal Pulivarti, 1st Cavalry Division. BAGHDAD — A common sense of triumph and accomplishment drifted in the air during a ceremony in northeast Baghdad’s Sadr City district June 20, as U.S. Soldiers returned Joint Security Station (JSS) Sadr City to the Iraqi Army (IA), in accordance with the U.S.-Iraq...

BAGHDAD, June 1, 2009 – At an Iraqi army base in the Sadr City district here, 302 civil project workers put on fresh clothes for their monthly payday May 28. Army Pvt. Zachary Goff jokes around with Iraqi civil project workers as they line up during a payday event at an Iraqi army base in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, May 28, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Their project, funded by the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, paid out about $100,000 to...

BAGHDAD, April 23, 2009 – As sunlight faded in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, 1st Cavalry Division soldiers of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, along with soldiers of the 42nd Iraqi Army Division, moved down streets lined with houses in an effort to keep the city safer. “We’re essentially trying to hit target houses and known bed-down locations of bad guys,” said Greensboro, Ga., native Army 1st Lt. Mark Reinke, a platoon leader with Charlie Company. The soldiers knocked on doors and entered with the permission of the inhabitants to look for contraband, intelligence...

Grainy footage taken on a mobile phone and widely distributed around Baghdad shows a terrified young Iraqi boy cowering and whimpering as men with a stick force him to strip, revealing women's underwear beneath his dishdasha (Arab robe). "Why are you dressed as a girl?" roars one of the men, brandishing his stick as the youth removes his brassiere. The sobbing boy, who appears to be about 12, tries to explain that his family made him do it to earn money, as they have no other source of income. The scene, apparently filmed in a police post, reinforced reports of...

A shadowy group has posted signs around the Iraqi capital's main Shiite working-class district of Sadr City naming alleged homosexuals on a list and threatening to kill them. "We will punish you, perverts," the posters say. They are signed by the "Brigades of the Righteous," a previously unknown outfit with the same name as an armed group responsible for kidnapping five Britons in 2007. Residents said that those named on the list have gone into hiding. Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, someone has written: "We will get you, puppies," in red graffiti, using the Iraqi slang for homosexuals. Police earlier this...

One year ago, Moqtada al Sadr’s radical Mahdi Army militia strongholds in Basra and Sadr City were two of the biggest threats remaining to the Iraqi republic. Al Qaeda in Iraq had been reduced to a remnant, but the country still was a violent mirror of Lebanon. Hezbollah threatens the Lebanese capital and can start unilateral wars on a whim, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki had to ask himself if that was the kind of country he hoped to be left with as Americans talked of a combat force draw down. Lebanon has neither a capable national army...

BAGHDAD – The bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday. The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to seven years in prison in Iraq. The two men were believed killed Thursday by relatives who were shamed by their behavior, said the official. Police said they suspected the killings were at the hands of family members because no one has claimed the...

Iraqi workers clean the streets of Jamilla Market, the economic hub of Sadr City, Jan. 28, 2009. Photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jennifer Keefer, 926th Engineer Brigade. BAGHDAD — Under the direction of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Talley, commander, 926th Engineer Brigade, the last ten months brought significant engineering progress to Baghdad, specifically in Sadr City. The creation of Task Force Gold and Gold Spike provided reconstruction projects aimed at employing the people of Baghdad and improving essential services.“We bring employment back into the community,” said Master Sgt. Tracy Jackson, TF Gold Spike’s operations non-commissioned officer in charge. “And keep...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 5, 2009 – Some entered Sadr City District Advisory Council compound here in small groups Feb. 4, and others came alone. They were a diverse group -- former military men injured while fighting insurgents, victims of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the very old and the very young. Jawad Kadam tries out his first wheelchair as Brad Blauser, founder of WheelchairsforIraqikids.com, stands ready to help at the Sadr City District Advisory Council compound in Baghdad's Sadr City district, Feb. 4, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jerry Saslav  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Their disabilities linked them to...

BAGHDAD — Tribal leaders, Sadr City council members, Iraqi workers and engineers, and members of the Baghdad Water Authority gathered at the Sadr City Rusafa Water Treatment Facility in the Hay Ur neighborhood of Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district to witness the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Baghdad’s mayor officially open this modern facility, Jan. 21. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker thanked the crowd of approximately 200 guests for the opportunity to open the facility he said would help shape the future of Baghdad and Iraq. “This is truly a strategic project,” Crocker said. “It provides 96,000 cubic meters of water...

SADR CITY — As rockets crashed down in central Baghdad nine months ago, Special Groups criminals controlled the areas here intended for play and athletics. But today, the children were back at play in northeast Baghdad as local government leaders opened the Faoo Family Park and the Regular 6 Sports Complex. The facilities, which were once used by Special Groups to launch deadly attacks against the fortified Green Zone, were celebrated, Jan. 17, for being returned to the citizens as well as the military accomplishment of seizing the land back from the criminals. “This park is for all the people...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Army Soldiers seized a weapons cache in the Sadr City district of Baghdad Dec. 29. Acting on a tip, Iraqi Army Soldiers with 5th Battalion, 44th Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division, discovered the cache. The cache consisted of two 81 mm mortars, one block of C4 explosives, four 82 mm mortars, one 127 mm rocket, one 107 mm high-explosive rocket, one 85 mm rocket, one 70 mm rocket, one 68 mm rocket, three 107mm rocket motors, six grenades, 23 mortar fuses, one rocket fuse, and five pounds of high explosives. “Iraqi Security Forces continue to deny criminals...

Lt. Col. Michael Pemrick greets two Iraqi men warming themselves with a hot drink in front of a busy sandwich shop in the Thawra 1 neighborhood of the Sadr City District of Bagdad, Dec. 18, 2008. Photo by Maj. Michael Humphreys, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — Along a road a man sells hot, fresh rotisserie chicken under a string of lights. Nearby, two men stand in warm coats and knitted caps casually sipping a hot drink at a store front where another man in a blue “USA” sweatshirt moves quickly back and forth behind a glass counter tossing...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 19, 2008 – A monumental achievement has been accomplished in the highly populated Baghdad district of Sadr City. This time, it isn't a record number of barriers put in place or another insurgent captured, it is the publication of the first local Sadr City newspaper, the Al Medina. Muhammad Al-Tamimi, general manager of Sadr City's Al Medina newspaper, enjoys reading his weekly newspaper in Iraq on Dec. 17, 2008. U.S. Army photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Al Medina is a locally produced and locally owned newspaper that focuses on news affecting the people...

BAGHDAD – The residents of Tharwa 1 shook hands with Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division, in the streets as they conducted house-to-house searches for unauthorized weapons and the residents gladly opened their doors and welcomed the Soldiers inside. Most residents offered tea and breakfast and they took handbills and tip cards with great interest as they hoped to show the Soldiers they were willing to help out in order to keep the area safe for their children. “The people here in Sadr City really appreciate our efforts, and...