Nuri al-Maliki: Disband Mahdi Army

30 April 2008

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is vowing to disarm militias by force and disband the Shi'ite Mahdi Army, Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaida in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (File)

Mr. Maliki made the pledge at a news conference Wednesday in Baghdad. His comments follow days of heavy fighting that pits U.S. and Iraqi forces against Shi'ite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad's Sadr City. The military says at least 66 fighters have been killed there since Sunday.

Mr. Maliki also ordered the crackdown last month on Sadr's Mahdi Army in the southern city of Basra.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pointed to Maliki’s Iraqi-led crackdown against Shiite militias, primarily Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s militia, known as the Mahdi Army, or Jaysh al-Mahdi.

While conceding that operations in and around the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City have seen more U.S. and Iraqi casualties, Gates said part of it is because coalition and Iraqi forces are operating in new areas. Another part is because of mixed messages Sadr is sending to his militia.

“For the last number of months, Sadr has had a ceasefire on his followers. And while he has not ended that ceasefire, he has made statements that certainly some Jaysh al-Mahdi and special groups have interpreted as the go-ahead to attack coalition forces,” he said.

U.S. and coalition officials use the term “special groups” to describe enemy fighters who are trained, bankrolled and supplied by Iran.

“And so, as we work our way around Sadr City, which we have basically stayed out of,” Gates said, “we are encountering … heavy combat.”

Gates said the situation represents a conflict between the Iraqi government and “lawless elements that do not want to be part of the political process.”

“I think everyone has made clear that if the Sadrists are willing to participate in the political process, that they would be welcome in that process,” Gates said.

Meanwhile, Maliki’s actions are supported within the Iraqi government, the secretary said.

“What is intriguing is that, because of the way the prime minister has taken on the Jaysh al-Mahdi and special groups in Basra and some of these other gangs, the rest of the Iraqi government that has not exactly been known for its unity has, in fact, unified behind Prime Minister Maliki,” Gates said. “He has gotten the vocal support of virtually all elements of the government, and partly because they see him acting against a sectarian group that they were concerned he wouldn’t act against.”



In other news, the U.S. military says Iraqi police are conducting an investigation along a route frequently used by morning commuters in northern Kirkuk City, and outside shops in the city. Two bomb blasts there on Tuesday wounded 14 civilians and three Iraqi Army personnel. Reports say another civilian may have died.

Separately, U.S. military officials said five suspected insurgents dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms targeted the home of a human rights worker, killing two people on Tuesday.

In a statement, the military said the human rights worker, as well as an Iraqi soldier who lived in the neighborhood, were killed. Two Iraqi civilians were also injured.

The military did not provide details about the location of the attack, but the statement was issued from Diyala province.

Also, the U.S. military says 28 militants have been killed in fighting between Shi'ite militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Sadr City area of east Baghdad.

U.S. Army soldiers clear a weapon they discovered during a patrol in Karadah, Iraq. The soldiers are assigned to the 10th Mountain Division's Battery B, 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment.

A spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Stover, says at least four U.S. soldiers were wounded in the fighting Tuesday.

The clashes appeared to be a continuation of fighting Sunday and Monday in which American and Iraqi troops killed at least 38 militants in the area.

Earlier Tuesday, Iraqi officials said at least eight people were killed and about 25 wounded in fighting in Sadr City.

It was not immediately clear whether the two gunbattles Tuesday were the same.

Militias loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have been battling coalition and Iraqi forces in Sadr City since late March. More than 300 people have been killed, including militants and civilians.

On Sunday, Sadr rejected conditions set by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to end the fighting. A spokesman for the Sadr movement accused Mr. Maliki of wanting to resolve the problem by force and not dialogue.

In other news, Coalition forces killed three terrorists and detained 12 suspects today during operations in the northern half of Iraq.

-- Coalition forces targeted a suspect wanted for aiding foreign terrorists at a suspected terrorist safe-house about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Forces killed three armed terrorists there, and five others were detained.

-- Coalition forces nabbed four suspects in Mosul.

-- In Beiji, about 100 miles south of Mosul, forces captured the leader of a car-bomb cell along with two others.

In operations around Iraq yesterday:

-- In Baghdad, an aerial weapons team and an M1A2 Abrams tank crew killed seven enemy fighters in the Sadr City district. The aerial weapons team fired a Hellfire missile, killing four, and the tank crew shot a main round, killing three.

-- Forces targeted two vehicles and killed 10 terrorists near Khalaf Al Mahd. They detained one suspected terrorist and destroyed a weapons cache he was guarding nearby.

-- Citizens in the Diyala province fended off an attack from al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists, killing 12. Members of the local “Sons of Iraq” citizen security group fought against the enemy attack. One Sons of Iraq member was killed, and three were wounded. Several civilians were wounded in the attack.

-- In Abu Ghraib, forces targeted a terrorist with ties to al-Qaida leaders in Baghdad. Three terrorists were detained.

-- Forces caught a suspect associated with terrorists involved in al-Qaida media operations in the Rasafah neighborhood in Baghdad.

Soldiers confiscated several weapons caches in separate actions yesterday:

-- Forces confiscated numerous weapons and gear in the New Baghdad security district of eastern Baghdad, including 38 AK-47 assault rifles, three SKS rifles, a pistol, four helmets, and vests.

-- Soldiers recovered a cache holding 10 rocket-propelled grenades, two launching tubes, a suicide vest, two grenades, a 105 mm round, two 60 mm mortar rounds, and an unknown amount of homemade explosive in western Rashid.

-- While patrolling the New Baghdad area of eastern Baghdad, soldiers uncovered a cache holding 20 mortar rounds and six rocket-propelled grenades.

In other operations across Iraq on April 27:

-- Soldiers seized munitions and detained a man from Iraq's most-wanted list in Baghdad's Rashid district.

-- Soldiers detained another man from Iraq's most-wanted list in the Zubaida community. They also found a rocket launcher and rocket rigged with detonation wire during a patrol there.

-- Forces found a cache southwest of Baghdad. The cache held 80 machine-gun rounds, four 69 mm mortar rounds, a 120 mm mortar round and two bags of homemade explosives.

-- Soldiers discovered an emplaced roadside bomb and a rocket with launcher in two places in the Rashid district of the Iraqi capital. A 107 mm rocket was recovered, and an armor-piercing explosively formed penetrator was found during a combat patrol in the Abu Tshir community.