Cease-fire holds in Sadr City after deadly clashes
A shaky cease-fire appeared to take hold Tuesday in Baghdad's Sadr City, after a cleric who brokered the deal for Shiite fighters said they would honor it even after clashes left at least 11 dead and 19 wounded.
The pact was intended to stop seven weeks of fighting between U.S.-supported Iraqi troops and Shiite extremists who have fired more than 1,000 mortars and rockets into the Green Zone, home to the government and Western embassies. But the cease-fire did not start well, with clashes late Monday and early Tuesday.
Iraqi medics reported 11 killed and 19 wounded. There were women and children among the wounded, said hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The U.S. military said Tuesday it could confirm the deaths of six militants.
In violence in northern Iraq, a roadside bombing killed five Iraqi soldiers Tuesday in Mosul, police said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Iraqi troops and U.S. soldiers have launched an operation against Sunni extremists there.
The Sadr City fighting and cease-fire have brought into question the authority of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who currently lives in Iran. Al-Sadr signed a cease-fire agreement in August, but Shiite militiamen have recently ignored those orders.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman for American troops in Baghdad, said Tuesday that the fighting was caused by "special groups," Shiite factions that have broken with al-Sadr. Many are thought to be trained and armed by Iranian forces. Iran denies the allegations.
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Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/08/2008 7:41:07 PM
Comment: So.Two thing to watch here. One. As I predicted heretofore,all fighting in Basra ceased soon after the capture of the cities northwestern slums area and the retaking of the ports area by the 9th IA. It went without saying that as al Qaeda fled to ,what NEWSWEEK is now[for them],amazingly calling,''their last urban stronghold'' in Mosul,now sustaining a devastating loss with the capture of al-Masri,so too has JAM collected its final holdouts for the Sadr City Gotterramerdung which the press,in turns will be callling a ''disaster'',a ''debacle''and mentioning only US,IA, or civilian casualties.[The liberal NPR is on this track right now].The same as they did in Basra,which is quieter now than it has been in over four years. The American press was never able to grasp the idea of victory for anyone other than either al Qaeda or the Sadrists. At times,it seemed as though they were rooting them on,which caused the NY Times own Bureau Chief in the region,John Burns,to turn on his own paper in disgust with the crap they were printing. Crap that was regurgitated by NEWSWEEK,MSNBC,and TIME,to name a few. The Basra offensive was one of the worst examples of journalism to come out in the last half-century. They took achieved victory,plain as the faces of the journalists now wandering around the quiet city,and turned it into defeat. Fallujah,the American press ''Alamo''of only three years ago. Where is the news now?[Answer:There isn't any].Ramadi. The ''Iron''portion of the ''Sunni Triangle'',which is now more peaceful than Obamas Chicago. Tikrit,Nasariyah,Anbar? Nothing. No news at all. Only Baghdad and the attending slum of Sadr City and its nest of vipers remains,and the press will howl over American ''defeat''there until there are no more Sadrists or al Qaeda left to kill or capture. And even then they will run up tales of American Dunkirks. While the enemy is destroyed. For as you see,history moves on its own accord,divorced from the partisan interpretations of mere hack scribblers,and pundits.
Posted By: BENOITKIT @ 05/03/2008 5:53:10 PM
Comment: why you have fight with bombs?why happen those people come trow it t bomb on own people.i think we
call terrorist we are the same went with trow it bomb. why not fight like those peoples we have best
eqiments.
Posted By: getzel @ 04/21/2008 4:17:43 PM
Comment: As I have been reporting since 2003, the WMD went from Iraq to Syria in January 2003. I predicted that the administration would reveal the proof that the WMD went to Iraq before the 2004 election; but Kerry seems to have thrown the election so now we are 2008.
It is with near certainty that the truth about the Iraq WMD is about to be made public for the first time. I say public because every relevant intelligence agency has known for years the WMD went to Syria;
Why has the American free press chosen to so mislead the American people about the Iraq WMD that went to Syria all these years?
Why does the American press not tell the public how Israel raided Syria last September and picked up their plutonium plant lock stock and barrel and took it back to Israel?
It will be great to see how President Bush explains that the WMD went to Iraq in January 2003 and we officially invaded Iraq in the Spring of 2003, we of course had troops in Iraq by the summer of 2002, but that is another story.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel
Why will the press not report: Condoleezza Rice has an oil super tanker transporting oil to and from the mid east: named on the side of the supertanker CONDOLEEZZA RICE; ok they erased her name when she went in politics and parade her as a provost. Google it to see a picture of her super tanker. That fact should get your suspicion up that something is terribly wrong.
BUSH/CHENEY/RICE/GATES DEMAND creating A NEW SHARIA TERRORIST STATE ON THE WEST BANK & GAZA. Can there be any dispute that a state created on the West Bank & Gaza will continue being a terror state like Iran & Syria et al. Yet Rice demands it.
intelligence analyst: Getzel