All out civil war about to erupt in Iraq

And we are told by McCain the surge is working, he,he, he. Iraq is a

lost cause that America can not win, the longer it stays in Iraq the

more the US economy will be destroyed

Al-Sadr tells followers to defy Iraqi government

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr

ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender

their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to

bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated

by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which

began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where

Shiite militias wield power.

Government television said the round-the-clock curfew imposed two days

ago on the capital and due to expire Sunday would be extended

indefinitely.

The U.S. Embassy tightened its security measures, ordering all staff

to use armored vehicles for all travel in the Green Zone and to sleep

in reinforced buildings until further notice after six days of rocket

and mortar attacks which left two Americans dead.

Despite the mounting crisis, al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, vowed to

remain in Basra until government forces wrest control from militias,

including al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. He called the fight for control of

Basra "a decisive and final battle."

British ground troops, who controlled the city until handing it over

to the Iraqis last December, also joined the battle for Basra, firing

artillery Saturday for the first time in support of Iraqi forces.

Iraqi authorities have given Basra extremists until April 8 to

surrender heavy and medium weapons after an initial 72-hour ultimatum

to hand them over was widely ignored.

But a defiant al-Sadr called on his followers Saturday to ignore the

order, saying that his Mahdi Army would turn in its weapons only to a

government that can "get the occupier out of Iraq," referring to the

Americans.

The order was made public by Haidar al-Jabiri, a member of the

influential political commission of the Sadrist movement.

Al-Sadr, in an interview aired Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, said

his Mahdi Army was capable of "liberating Iraq" and maintained al-

Maliki's government was as "distant" from the people as Saddam

Hussein's.

Residents of Basra contacted by telephone said Mahdi militiamen were

manning checkpoints Saturday in their neighborhood strongholds. The

sound of intermittent mortar and machine gun fire rang out across the

city, as the military headquarters at a downtown hotel came under

repeated fire.

An Iraqi army battalion commander and two of his bodyguards were

killed Saturday night by a roadside bomb in central Basra, military

spokesman Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.

The fight for Basra is crucial for al-Maliki, who flew to Basra

earlier this week and is staking his credibility on gaining control of

Iraq's second-largest city, which has essentially been held by armed

groups for nearly three years.

In a speech Saturday to tribal leaders in Basra, al-Maliki promised to

"stand up to these gangs" not only in the south but throughout Iraq.

Iraqi officials and their American partners have long insisted that

the crackdown was not directed at al-Sadr's movement but against

criminals and renegade factions -- some of whom are allegedly tied to

Iran.

Al-Maliki told tribal leaders that the offensive in Basra "was only to

deal with these gangs" -- some of which he said "are worse than al-

Qaeda."

Without mentioning the Sadrists by name, al-Maliki said he was

"surprised to see that party emerge with all the weapons available to

it and strike at everything -- institutions, people, departments,

police stations and the army."

Al-Sadr's followers have accused rival Shiite parties in the national

government of trying to crush their movement before provincial

elections this fall. The young cleric's lieutenants had warned

repeatedly that any move to dislodge them from Basra would provoke

bloodshed.

But al-Maliki's comments appeared to reinforce suspicions that his

government failed to foresee the backlash, including a sharp upsurge

in violence throughout the Shiite south and shelling of the U.S.-

controlled Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi leadership and

the U.S. mission.

Two American soldiers were killed Saturday when their vehicle was

struck by a roadside bomb in mostly Shiite east Baghdad, the U.S.

military said.

The growing turmoil threatens to undermine White House efforts to

convince a skeptical Congress and the American public that the Iraqis

are making progress toward managing their own security without the

presence of U.S. troops.

With the Shiite militiamen defiant, a group of police in the Mahdi

Army's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City abandoned their posts and

handed over their weapons to al-Sadr's local office. Police forces in

Baghdad are believed to be heavily influenced or infiltrated by Mahdi

militiamen.

"We can't fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to

submit our weapons," one policeman said on condition of anonymity for

security reasons.

He said about 40 policemen had defected to the Mahdi Army. The figure

could not be confirmed, but AP Television News footage showed about a

dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their

identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr's chief

representative in Sadr City.

Al-Feraiji greeted each policeman and gave them a copy of the Quran

and an olive branch as they handed over their guns and ammunition.

On Saturday, Iraqi officials said they had received a phone call from

Tahseen Sheikhly, the high-profile civilian spokesman for the Baghdad

security operation, who was seized by gunmen two days earlier from at

his home in a Shiite area of the capital.

An Iraqi-owned satellite television station, Sharqiya, broadcast what

it said was a tape of the conversation, in which a man identifying

himself as Sheikhly said he was being held "with a group of officers"

at an unknown location.

"Our release depends on the withdrawal of al-Maliki from Basra and the

easing of the military operations against the Sadrists in all

provinces," he said. "We appeal to the prime minister and the Iraqi

government to work with the Sadrist movement, which represents the

popular base of society."

In Basra, U.S. jets dropped two precision-guided bombs at midday

Saturday on a suspected militia stronghold at Qarmat Ali north of the

city, British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.

"My understanding was that this was a building that had people who

were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a

house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child.

They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to

release the information.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report and it was

not possible to independently verify it.

Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, on

Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least

500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City

and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.

The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most

of those killed were militia members.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This

material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

> In Basra, U.S. jets dropped two precision-guided bombs at midday

> Saturday on a suspected militia stronghold at Qarmat Ali north of

> the city, British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.

"Suspected" means "Who cares, they're all arabs aren't they?"

> "My understanding was that this was a building that had people who

> were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

"My understanding was" means if this blows up in my face I can just

say I misunderstood. Weasel words.

> Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed

> a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one

> child. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not

> authorized to release the information.

A "military target" is anything targeted by the military.

> The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report and it

> was not possible to independently verify it.

Murder.

> Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, on

> Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at

> least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in

> Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.

> The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that

> most of those killed were militia members.

"Most" is a weasel word for "Who cares, they're all arabs aren't

they?"