News & Politics - Shiite militia takes over Iraqi city

Lexis · 10-20-2006, 09:19 AM

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The Shiite militia run by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of a southern Iraqi city on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.
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Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, residents said, planting explosives that flattened the buildings in Amarah, a city just 30 miles from the Iranian border that was under British command until August, when it was returned to Iraqi government control.

About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling in commandeered police vehicles, witnesses said. Other fighters set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.

The militiamen later withdrew from their positions and lifted their siege of police headquarters under a temporary truce negotiated with an al-Sadr envoy. It was not clear on Friday afternoon whether security forces had reasserted control over the city or whether the cleric knew about his militia's planned takeover in advance.

The Iraqi army dispatched two companies to Amarah from Basra, the south's largest city. Mohammad al-Alaskari, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said "the situation is still tense."

The events in Amarah — involving a dispute between the Mahdi Army and local security forces believed controlled by the rival Badr Brigade militia — highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.

Al-Sadr's envoy, whose identity remains unknown, was due to meet with the provincial governor, the local Mahdi Army commander and al-Sadr's representative in Amarah, a city of 750,000.

Shiite militia violence, mainly against the country's Sunni minority, has ravaged
Iraq since February when a Shiite holy place in Samara was blown up. The violence has been on the increase, but this is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shiites against one another on such a scale.

Since British troops left Amarah in August, residents say the militia has been involved in a series of killings, including slayings of merchants suspected of selling alcohol and women alleged to have engaged in behavior deemed immoral by militiamen.

At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, had been killed in clashes since Friday, Dr. Zamil Shia, director of Amarah's department of health, said by telephone from the city, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The fighting also wounded at least 59 people — including 22 civilians — according to Riyadh Saed, the duty physician at the city's main hospital.

Shiite militia takes over Iraqi city - Yahoo! News

TokyoNiGHTS · 10-20-2006, 07:57 PM

This is why the people who go on TV and ask "Why aren't they ever showing the good news from Iraq?" should be laughed on the set. Every week things seem to be getting worse and worse in that country. And there have been reports that this has been the deadliest month in Iraq for US soldiers in awhile.

And yet through all of this there's still no plan for what we're going to do.

Lexis · 10-21-2006, 03:16 AM

What really worries me is that this city was only handed back to Iraqi control two months ago and already stuff like this is happenning. Its so hard to imagine how/when the Iraqi police/military will be able to do their jobs when this kind of open warfare is continuing.

**sum1** · 10-21-2006, 03:50 AM

Aren't these guys charming? Maybe they got bored with using hospitals as execution chambers and decided using a whole city would be more fun. I'm soundly sick of the horrible atrocities. Enough already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TokyoNiGHTS (View Post)

This is why the people who go on TV and ask "Why aren't they ever showing the good news from Iraq?" should be laughed on the set. Every week things seem to be getting worse and worse in that country.

Except there is such a thing as good news from Iraq, there have been positive things happening as well and if coverage is going to be genuinely balanced and complete that stuff should be shown too.

TokyoNiGHTS · 10-21-2006, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sum1 (View Post)

Except there is such a thing as good news from Iraq, there have been positive things happening as well and if coverage is going to be genuinely balanced and complete that stuff should be shown too.

I'm not saying there isn't any good in Iraq. But the bad is so much more frequent and on a larger scale that it greatly outweights the good and that's why there just seems to be bad and bad news.

ceilirose · 10-21-2006, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TokyoNiGHTS (View Post)

I'm not saying there isn't any good in Iraq. But the bad is so much more frequent and on a larger scale that it greatly outweights the good and that's why there just seems to be bad and bad news.

When that CBS newswoman was hit by an IED this spring I remember other reporters saying that it was an individual decision as to how far they went from their "safe zone" in Baghdad to report. In other words is it worth their lives to show a school opening?

This incident happened in the area that was at least relatively safer than Baghdad from what I've read

I just heard that mortar fire went into an open air market and killed ten and injured 40. One day this week about 40 or so mutilated bodies were found in Baghdad.

It's out of control. The US would have to reinstate a draft to get the troop levels up to the level needed to control the situation. We (the US) will be paying for this for generations.

Lexis · 10-21-2006, 10:45 AM

I read 18 died in the attack on the market.

Reporting from Iraq is so incredibly dangerous and it really irritates me when talking heads (who should know better) whine that journalists are making out the situation is worse than it is. Just the other week, the offices of a tv station were raided and lots of employees killed and injured.

Laira · 10-23-2006, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Except there is such a thing as good news from Iraq, there have been positive things happening as well and if coverage is going to be genuinely balanced and complete that stuff should be shown too.

Name one.


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