Dick Cheney gave the orders for Basra campaign-Bush hails Iraq militia crackdown
Dick Cheney gave the orders for Basra campaign
-Bush hails Iraq militia crackdown-
Maliki’s government busy trying to save face by issuing a dead line for Mahdi fighters, but the reality is another way around it is Al-Sadr asks AL-Maliki to leave the city, Maliki was saved by the American helicopters when the fighters surrounded his resident in Basra, Al-Qabas reported about the main problem faced the government in this bad presentation that forced Maliki to use his relatives with extra forces came from Karbala:
Members of army and the police did not carry out the military orders many of them deliberately went back to their homes with lack of desire to fight this battle and the complicated tribal links among the forces and militants, but there also Mahdi Army’s experience factor in urban, guerrilla war.
Notice what Nazar Hatim wrote to the same newspaper:
For the media it is the government forces against Mahdi Army, but the reality is more complicated than this, there are the oil smuggle mafia and even “Heaven Soldiers” group, all these groups use AL-Sadr as a cover for their operations.
At the end of his report he mentions the 17 soldiers arrested yesterday but he don’t says their nationality, are they the same American soldiers reported yesterday
Zuhair Al-Dujaili take a preview on the government performance for the few last months:
The bumpy political process, Maliki-government tendency to beautify its performance for the last two years, hiding the real problems and using fake media report manipulating facts, the reality is now exploding in form of political and security crises, for the time being the government can use military forces to solve some of these crises but not enough to extinguish the fires that erupt around.
Cheney’s orders
For Al-Arab newspaper sources tell about Dick Cheney gave the green light to start Basra campaign against Mahdi Army in his visit to Baghdad see this, what do you think they are talking about? …growing flowers?, and the goal is to give the Iraqi forces more confidence in itself to carry on the security responsibilities in the south of Iraq.
American commander of South-Iraq discussed with high rank marines officers; how to involve southern Iraq militias such as Mahdi Army, Ali bin Abi Talib Brigades and Al-Taf Brigades in a final battle.
The topic had been raised during Dick Cheney recent visit to Iraq, where he agreed on the subject, considered it important by the end of George Bush presidential term.
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Bush hails Iraq militia crackdown
‘No retreat’
“We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue until the end. No retreat,” Mr Maliki said in a speech broadcast on Iraqi state television.
The prime minister has personally overseen the operation in Basra, which involves some 30,000 troops and police.
But Mehdi Army fighters loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr remain in control of some densely-populated areas.
Speaking at a US Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio, Mr Bush said “normalcy” was returning to Iraq.
“As we speak Iraqis are waging a tough battle against militia fighters and criminals in Basra, many of whom have received arms and training and funding from Iran,” he said.
Mr Maliki’s move against Basra’s militias underlined “his leadership and his commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner”, the US president added.
Rising violence
He spoke as one of several Americans injured this week in rocket attacks on Baghdad’s Green Zone died, amid fresh missiles attacks on the fortified area.
Meanwhile, one of Iraq’s two main oil export pipelines from Basra was blown up in a bomb attack, sending oil prices above $107 a barrel.
And Basra’s police chief survived a bomb attack that killed three of his bodyguards.
With many shops and markets shut, residents in the city said they were beginning to run out of food and water.
In Baghdad, thousands of Sadr supporters marched to demand Mr Maliki quit over the Basra operation and there was sporadic fighting in Shia areas of the capital.
In other developments:
- The FBI said it had recovered the bodies of two US security contractors kidnapped in Iraq in 2006
- A prominent Sunni civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, Tahseen Sheikhly, was kidnapped by gunmen
- Dozens died in clashes between the security forces and militias in the southern city of Kut
- Clashes have also been reported in the towns of Hilla and Diwaniya, as well as the Shia holy city of Kerbala
The number of gunfights in southern Iraq appears to be growing, says the BBC’s Crispin Thorold in Baghdad.
The fighting still seems to be mainly with members of the Mehdi Army, our correspondent says.
The militia had held to a ceasefire since last August, contributing to the general fall in violence across Iraq.
The government says it aims to re-impose law and order in Basra, which the British military handed over to Iraqi forces in December.
However, Moqtada Sadr’s supporters say the government wants to weaken the militias before local elections in October.
At stake, analysts say, is control of Iraq’s only port city and the region’s oil fields.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/7317123.stm
