Originally Posted by article
U.S. bombs Basra to support Iraqi forces
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces, backing up Iraqi troops battling Shiite militants, bombed Basra on Saturday as about 40 Iraqi police commandos based in Baghdad deserted to join a militia.
British forces were shelling in Basra Saturday as U.S. jets dropped two bombs on a suspected Shiite militia stronghold in the area, according to a British military spokesman.
The British had bombed on Friday.
Spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said the attacks came after Iraqi forces asked for air support. There were no coalition casualties and the military is still assessing the impact of the bombings, he said.
"We are aware of reports of incidents in the Basra area resulting in civilian casualties. We are investigating the reports and do not have any further details at this time," Holloway said.
The U.S. military said Saturday it was investigating reports that a coalition warplane fired on a home in western Basra and killed several civilians.
The violence began Tuesday as a solo campaign against Shiite militias that control much of Basra, but the Iraqi government is increasingly relying on coalition ground and air support.
Several U.S. officials told CNN on Friday that the Iraqi military push is not going as well as American officials had hoped.
A U.S. military intelligence analysis found that Iraqi security forces control less than a quarter of Basra, officials in both the United States and Iraq said.
"This is going to go on for a while," one U.S. military official told CNN.
Basra's police units are deeply infiltrated by members of the Mehdi Army.
At least 40 Iraqi national police in Baghdad have deserted and joined the Mehdi Army militia led by Muqtada al-Sadr, taking their U.S.-supplied weapons with them, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.
The radical Shiite cleric rejected Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call for the Mehdi Army to lay down its arms, a top al-Sadr aide told CNN on Saturday.
"Muqtada al-Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the [American] occupation," Salah al-Obaidi said.
Mortar and rocket attacks were directed Saturday at Baghdad's fortified International Zone -- also known as the Green Zone -- where Iraqi government buildings and embassies are located. No injuries were reported, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Iraqi officials said 75 people had been killed and almost 500 wounded in clashes between security forces and insurgents in the Baghdad Shiite stronghold of Sadr City.
Insurgents have ignored a curfew imposed Thursday in an effort to quell the violence. The curfew was to end at 5 a.m. Sunday in Baghdad, Hilla, Kut, Diwaniya, Simawa and Basra. Officials banned pedestrian, motorcycle and vehicular traffic.
Nassar al-Rubaie, a Shiite member of parliament affiliated with the Sadr bloc, criticized the strikes against Shiite areas.
"We condemn U.S. airstrikes against Sadr City, Shula neighborhood and other areas," al-Rubaie said at a news conference. "We condemn the government asking occupation forces to carry out airstrikes against our people. We say Iraq sovereignty will not be achieved through military operation against Iraqis, as Bush claimed, but it can be achieved through throwing the occupation forces out of Iraq."
Another lawmaker accused al-Maliki of violating the constitution by deploying forces to attack Basra without notifying the city's local council. Falah Shenshil threatened to sue top government officials.
Basra, Iraq's chief oil port and second-largest city, has been the focus of a turf war between the Mehdi Army and two rival Shiite factions: Abdel Aziz al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the smaller Fadhila party.
Iraqi security forces killed 12 during battles Friday and Saturday in the Shiite city of Karbala, about 60 miles (100 km) south of Baghdad, according to Karbala police chief Gen. Raed Jawdat Shaker. They also detained about 50 others, he said.
The fighting has sparked fears that a seven-month cease-fire by al-Sadr's militia -- regarded as a key factor in a dramatic drop in violence in recent months -- could collapse or that the U.S. military will have to take over for the Iraqis.
So not only are they failing miserably, you have them openly defecting to the militancy. This is only a small example of what would happen if we leave. It won't matter if we leave tomorrow, 2015, 2030...it's going to end up a mess.
03-29-2008, 03:12 PM
