Rebel cleric must be defeated before his militia regroups, top U.S. comman

[floda]

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The fight with renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not over and the U.S. military must retake his stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a top U.S. commander said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, said action is necessary before the volatile cleric has a chance to rebuild his Mahdi militia, which was devastated in recent fighting.


"He's decided the best thing for him to do is to go underground and regroup," Chiarelli told The Associated Press. "We're not going to allow that to happen."

The Mahdi Army hasn't launched a significant attack on U.S. troops in two days, Chiarelli said. The rebel leader has not made a public appearance since the remnants of his militia departed Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine after a peace agreement last week.

snip

If it comes to a showdown with the U.S. military in Sadr City, no ultra-sensitive Muslim holy places will get in the Army's way, Chiarelli said, harking to how sensitivities over damaging the revered Imam Ali Shrine prevented a full-bore attack on al-Sadr's militia in Najaf.

more...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040902-1327-iraq-fightingsadr.html

[nosmokes]

1. i thought part of the najaf deal was a cease fire/truce

between us and sadr and the mahdi army. HTF can this asswipe be talking about taking action?

no wonder they pave the streets with flowers for us...

[Disturbed]

2. No more ...

win the hearts and minds stuff. The Neo Fascists have decided to decimate the insurgency of the Sunnis and Shi'ites. The liberation and bogus democracy for Iraq has been shitcanned and now it's brutal annihilation time.

I wonder if al Sistani will remain pacifist or will he announce the jihad against the Occupation and the phony Interim Fascists?

[bemildred]

3. Time for "Operation Phoenix" now?

That worked so well last time. Someone needs to tell the
General to shutup before he gets a lot of people killed for
nothing. Anyone that thinks you can take and hold Sadr City
needs to get a mental enema fast.

[Disturbed]

4. Curtis Lemay strategy.

Bomb them back into the stone age.

I am suspecting that orders from the top (Cheney/Rumsfailed) are to destroy the Insurgency with extreme prejudice so that the Neo Fascists will have no Iraqi disturbances before the US elelction.

[Aidoneus]

5. the cease-fire was over Najaf

Sayyid Muqtada then extended it to the whole of Iraq for a period, though this was not part of any agreement with the enemy so I doubt the latter will hold themselves to it. I was unsure at first, but it seems to have been a good idea; they're using the time to give a few units some much-needed actual training with their new friends to the northwest, in addition to letting Najaf's middle-class shopkeepers go back to growing fat off Iranian tourists.

The fools may not have a revered masjid in the way if they were to go after Madinat as-Sadr, just millions of heavily armed people who don't take shit from anybody. Saddam's brownshirts could never get in there, what makes them think they can? Think: LAPD walking into the wrong neighborhood, except this neighborhood makes up half of LA. Wonderful place for the Army to spend September. Somebody gag the minds behind this thought..