Maliki Vows to Expand Basra Crackdown

[unhappycamper]

Maliki Vows to Expand Basra Crackdown
April 04, 2008
Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister pledged April 4 to expand his crackdown on Shiite militias to Baghdad, despite a mixed performance so far against militants in the southern city of Basra, where reports are now emerging of government troops refusing to fight.

Still, the U.S. ambassador said that despite a "boatload" of problems with the Basra operation, he was encouraged that the Shiite-led government was finally confronting extremists regardless of their religious affiliation.

Iraqi forces launched a major operation March 25 to rid Basra of Shiite militias and criminal gangs that had effectively ruled the city of 2 million people since 2005. But the offensive stalled in the face of fierce resistance from the militiamen and an uprising across the Shiite south spearheaded by the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Fighting eased March 30 when al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down under a deal brokered in Iran.

Meanwhile, the New York Times, quoting Iraqi govenment and U.S. military sources, reported April 4 that that more than 1,000 Iraqi troops and police refused to fight or abandoned their posts during the government's attempt to take down the Shiiite militias in Basra.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/maliki-vows-to-expand-basra-crackdown.html

[DrDan]

1. the ambassdor was encouraged in seeing the Iraqi Gov is willing to confront extremists

well - as long as he has 150,000 U.S. troops doing the confronting . . .

Sounds like the locals have a problem doing so themselves . . .

[rurallib]

2. Maybe the headline should say

'Malicki presses civil war'