U.S. Military: New Mandate To Pursue Shiite Militias
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Officials Say New Approach Includes Strikes Against Leaders
Courtesy Of: International Herald Tribune
By Farah Stockman and Bryan Bender
Original Source: The Boston Globe
Published: January 14, 2007
http://iht.com
WASHINGTON: U.S. military officials say the Bush administration has given them new authority to target leaders of political and religious militias in Iraq who are implicated in sectarian violence, including the powerful Shiite Muslim cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Such a showdown, integral to President George W. Bush's plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Baghdad, could spark a deadly confrontation with Shiite militias, which enjoy widespread popularity in Shiite neighborhoods.
It could also erode support for the fragile government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has agreed to the plan.
Senior U.S. and Iraqi officials said last week that Maliki had pledged to confront the militias with the help of additional American troops.
But many analysts doubt that Maliki has the will or the firepower to take on Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is blamed for much of the tit-for-tat violence in the capital.
In recent months, Maliki and other top Iraqi officials routinely vetoed U.S. raids on Sadr's operations, fearing the reaction of his legion of followers. Maliki's government kept a list of militia leaders who were off-limits to U.S. troops, a senior Pentagon official said in a briefing in Washington, but now Maliki has agreed that the list would no longer be used.
The officials said that the new approach would include pinpoint strikes against top leaders in the Mahdi Army as well as other militias from the Shiite majority, which are accused of kidnapping and murdering civilians from the Sunni Muslim minority. The officials said they would focus on methodical manhunts for key leaders, like the one in June that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a key Al Qaeda operative, rather than full-scale battles.
Pursuing the militias carries significant risks, both for Maliki, a far less popular figure than Sadr, and for the United States, which could be drawn deeper into dangerous urban warfare and an increasingly sectarian conflict.
"Even if the Iraqis had the will — and that's a big question — to do something about sectarian violence, it's going to be a very bloody business," said Phebe Marr, a specialist on Iraq's emerging political parties and the author of "The Modern History of Iraq."
"This could make Sadr even more popular," Marr said. "He could play this as 'the imperialist Americans are coming to attack me.'"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Sadr must be neutralized. "The Iraqis are going to have to deal with Sadr," she said, in response to a question. "They're going to have to deal with those death squads, and the prime minister said nobody and nothing is off-limits."
Bush's plan envisages adding 17,500 more U.S. forces in Baghdad — which would more than double the American military presence there — to operate alongside about 40,000 Iraqis from the army and the police force. The joint forces, which will include American units embedded in Iraqi brigades, would take on both Sunni insurgents and Shiite sectarian death squads, U.S. military officials said Thursday.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday that Maliki's willingness to allow these joint forces to enter Sadr City and other key neighborhoods in Baghdad is "central to the success of this entire operation." Sadr City, a Baghdad slum with an estimated two million residents, was named after Sadr's father, a revered cleric who was assassinated during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Link To Article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/14/news/iraq.php
Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
**********************************************************
Officials Say New Approach Includes Strikes Against Leaders
Courtesy Of: International Herald Tribune
By Farah Stockman and Bryan Bender
Original Source: The Boston Globe
Published: January 14, 2007
http://iht.com
WASHINGTON: U.S. military officials say the Bush administration has given them new authority to target leaders of political and religious militias in Iraq who are implicated in sectarian violence, including the powerful Shiite Muslim cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Such a showdown, integral to President George W. Bush's plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Baghdad, could spark a deadly confrontation with Shiite militias, which enjoy widespread popularity in Shiite neighborhoods.
It could also erode support for the fragile government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has agreed to the plan.
Senior U.S. and Iraqi officials said last week that Maliki had pledged to confront the militias with the help of additional American troops.
But many analysts doubt that Maliki has the will or the firepower to take on Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is blamed for much of the tit-for-tat violence in the capital.
In recent months, Maliki and other top Iraqi officials routinely vetoed U.S. raids on Sadr's operations, fearing the reaction of his legion of followers. Maliki's government kept a list of militia leaders who were off-limits to U.S. troops, a senior Pentagon official said in a briefing in Washington, but now Maliki has agreed that the list would no longer be used.
The officials said that the new approach would include pinpoint strikes against top leaders in the Mahdi Army as well as other militias from the Shiite majority, which are accused of kidnapping and murdering civilians from the Sunni Muslim minority. The officials said they would focus on methodical manhunts for key leaders, like the one in June that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a key Al Qaeda operative, rather than full-scale battles.
Pursuing the militias carries significant risks, both for Maliki, a far less popular figure than Sadr, and for the United States, which could be drawn deeper into dangerous urban warfare and an increasingly sectarian conflict.
"Even if the Iraqis had the will — and that's a big question — to do something about sectarian violence, it's going to be a very bloody business," said Phebe Marr, a specialist on Iraq's emerging political parties and the author of "The Modern History of Iraq."
"This could make Sadr even more popular," Marr said. "He could play this as 'the imperialist Americans are coming to attack me.'"
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Sadr must be neutralized. "The Iraqis are going to have to deal with Sadr," she said, in response to a question. "They're going to have to deal with those death squads, and the prime minister said nobody and nothing is off-limits."
Bush's plan envisages adding 17,500 more U.S. forces in Baghdad — which would more than double the American military presence there — to operate alongside about 40,000 Iraqis from the army and the police force. The joint forces, which will include American units embedded in Iraqi brigades, would take on both Sunni insurgents and Shiite sectarian death squads, U.S. military officials said Thursday.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday that Maliki's willingness to allow these joint forces to enter Sadr City and other key neighborhoods in Baghdad is "central to the success of this entire operation." Sadr City, a Baghdad slum with an estimated two million residents, was named after Sadr's father, a revered cleric who was assassinated during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Link To Article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/14/news/iraq.php
Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
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