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ReutersBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will disarm the Mehdi Army militia by force if it does not lay down its weapons, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday, aiming some of his toughest language yet at the Shi'ite fighters.
The prime minister laid down four conditions -- that militia disarm, stop interfering in state affairs, stop running their own courts and hand over wanted fugitives -- or face a military assault.
"To refuse these conditions means the continuation of the government's efforts to disarm them by force," Maliki said at a news conference inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound.
"There is no alternative to these conditions. The alternative is the continuation of force and clashes until we reach the end, to get rid of the weapons and the gangs who are carrying weapons."
Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, launched a crackdown against militia fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr last month in the southern city of Basra.
After initial setbacks, the Basra offensive appears to have been a success in driving fighters from the streets there. But the militiamen remain in control of much of the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad, where they have clashed heavily with U.S. and Iraqi forces over the past several days.
Read more:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080430/tpl-uk-iraq-maliki-43a8d4f.html
bMilitants kill ministry spokesman's nephew, hang body from electric poleThe Associated PressPublished: April 30, 2008
BAGHDAD: Militants killed the nephew of the Interior Ministry spokesman and hung his body from an electric pole in Baghdad, the prime minister said Wednesday.
The attack Tuesday was in apparent retaliation for the spokesman's role in a government crackdown against Shiite militias.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf's nephew was killed in Sadr City district — the stronghold of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
Khalaf was in charge of the crackdown on the Mahdi Army that began in Basra in late March and has survived past assassination attempts. Clashes have spread to Sadr City since then.
Al-Maliki also vowed to disarm all militants fighting the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces after al-Sadr rejected to surrender weapons and militias over the weekend.
more:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/30/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Assassination.phpU.S. Role Deepens in Sadr City
Fierce Battle Against Shiite Militiamen Echoes First Years of WarBAGHDAD, April 29 -- A four-hour battle Tuesday between U.S. soldiers and Shiite militiamen left at least 28 Iraqis dead in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood, making it one of the bloodiest days in a month of sustained street fighting.
The clashes underscored how deeply U.S. forces have been drawn into heavy combat in the huge Shiite district since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki unexpectedly launched an offensive in southern Iraq last month against Shiite militias, primarily the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Until Maliki's push into the southern city of Basra, U.S. troops were not intensely engaged in Sadr City, a Baghdad neighborhood of roughly 3 million people that was among the most treacherous areas for U.S. forces early in the war.
But the southern offensive set off a violent chain reaction that spread quickly to Shiite sectors of the capital and has severely strained the cease-fire Sadr imposed on his followers in August and recently reaffirmed. U.S. troops, fighting at times Tuesday on foot and backed by air support, are now engaged in the kind of urban battle within Sadr's stronghold reminiscent of the first years of the war.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042900560.html?hpid=topnews
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