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April 7, 2008
U.S. and Iraqis Battle Militias to End Attacks
By ERICA GOODE and MICHAEL R. GORDON
BAGHDAD - Sharp fighting broke out in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on
Sunday as American and Iraqi troops sought to control neighborhoods used by
Shiite militias to fire rockets and mortars into the nearby Green Zone.
But the operation failed to stop the attacks on the heavily fortified zone,
headquarters for Iraq's central government and the American Embassy here. By
day's end, at least two American soldiers had been killed and 17 wounded in
the zone, one of the worst daily tolls for the American military in the most
heavily protected part of Baghdad. Altogether, at least three American
soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, and at
least 20 Iraqis were killed, mostly in Sadr City.
The heightened violence came on the eve of Congressional testimony in
Washington by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Iraq,
and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador here, to defend their strategy
for political reconciliation and improved security in the country.
The Green Zone attacks were, symbolically at least, a sign that forces
hostile to the United States are still able to strike at the American nerve
center and seat of government power in the capital of Iraq.
The attacks were sure to feature prominently in the scheduled hearings,
giving ammunition to Democratic critics who argue that Iraq is not making
progress, as well as Republicans who say it would be foolish to reduce the
American troop presence in Iraq quickly.
The attacks also came as Iraq's national security council intensified
pressure on the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political group led by
Moktada Al-Sadr, the powerful anti-American Shiite cleric, to disarm. In a
statement, the council declared that all political parties must immediately
dissolve their militias and surrender their weapons if they wish to take
part in elections.
The timing of the statement was seen as a message in particular for Mr.
Sadr, who represents the biggest political threat to Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki and his associates, and who derives much of his support from
Sadr City, which has been encircled by American and Iraqi troops for more
than a week.
Violence in Sadr City first flared more than a week ago after Mr. Maliki
began a poorly coordinated military campaign to retake the southern port
city of Basra from Shiite militias.
The fighting in Baghdad had calmed considerably in recent days. On Sunday
morning, though, Iraqi troops backed by an American Stryker squadron moved
through a southern section of Sadr City, and were met by militia fighters
armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
After the Iraqi soldiers came under attack, American forces in Abrams tanks,
Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles rumbled to the scene. An American
helicopter fired at least two Hellfire missiles at militia fighters armed
with rocket-propelled grenades, and blasted one of their vehicles. Later at
least one militia-fired rocket hit the Jamilla market, a heavily frequented
part of Sadr City, where clashes left at least 20 people dead, Iraqi
officials said.
A large whoosh from a rocket disrupted a briefing in Sadr City for a small
group of reporters, prompting correspondents and soldiers to duck. The news
conference at the lone American Army and Iraqi combat outpost in Sadr City
was given by Gen. Abud Qanbar Hashim, the Iraqi commander for Baghdad, and
Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, who leads the American division charged with
securing the capital, and began as bursts of gunfire rattled nearby streets.
General Hammond explained later that the projectile was probably an errant
107-millimeter rocket aimed at the Green Zone and launched from north Sadr
City.
Mr. Maliki has issued a series of seemingly inconsistent decrees in recent
days about his willingness to take on militias. General Abud said the Iraqi
operations in Sadr City were not aimed at any specific political movement.
The statement seemed intended to reassure Mr. Sadr's followers, but General
Abud insisted that Iraqi security forces would take action against any
militia brandishing arms.
"The main thing is that arms should be in the hands of the state," he said.
"And we will never allow any armed group to carry arms as an alternative to
the state to provide security to the citizens."
The immediate concern of the American forces was more tactical: trying to
shut down the mortar and rocket attacks that have become a daily problem for
the Green Zone.
Moving into Sadr City's streets and alleys, American soldiers have taken up
positions in abandoned houses, living in primitive conditions and trying to
fend off counterattacks from a enemy fighters who appeared to have a
well-organized system of command and control.
Sgt. Maj. Michael Boom of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry
Regiment, said more than 1,000 American and Iraqi troops were operating in
his sector. He said the recent fighting began March 25 when the Americans
heard that Iraqi checkpoints were being overrun.
"My soldiers pushed out to help the Iraqi security forces re-establish the
checkpoints. In some cases, we actually took over the checkpoints until they
could get forces back there," he said. "My companies have been taking direct
fire every day."
On March 28, the Americans moved to take control of the militia rocket sites
to try to blunt the attacks on the Green Zone. The militias responded with a
heavy counterattack the next day.
"They obviously wanted to retain that ground and maintain their ability to
shoot rockets with impunity," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, the squadron's
commander. "They have a command and control structure. They have a plan in
place."
The fighting increased as Iraqi forces began to clear a neighborhood to the
east of the outpost, with American support.
Over the past week, Mr. Maliki has also been trying to recoup the political
damage he sustained when his American-supported military assault in Basra
met with intense resistance from militias. After a six-day stalemate,
high-level negotiations resulted in Mr. Sadr's issuing a statement on March
30 ordering his followers to stop fighting.
The security council - whose members include Mr. Maliki; President Jalal
Talabani; Mahmoud al-Mashidani, the speaker of Parliament; and
representatives of the major political parties - demanded that the militias
be disbanded. The council's 15-point statement also called for all parties
to "appreciate the role of the army in imposing security and order in Basra
and the rest of the provinces."
Mahmood Uthman, an independent member of Parliament who is part of the
Kurdish Alliance, said he doubted that the Sadr group would go along. Mr.
Sadr and his followers, he said, are likely to insist that any call for
disarmament be applied to other political parties with militias, including
the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, whose armed wing is the Badr militia.
Luway Smessem, the head of the Sadr party's political committee, said that
though the group agreed with much of the statement, party officials had
"reservations" about some points, including the demands that militias
disband and that Mr. Maliki's Basra campaign be supported.
"The Mahdi Army is not a militia," he said. "We don't have masked fighters
and everyone knows who we are and who our commanders are."
Until Sunday, an American soldier had not died from attacks on the Green
Zone since last July.
In addition to the deaths in the Green Zone, a rocket fired at a military
base in the Rustimiya neighborhood of Baghdad killed one American soldier
and wounded 14.
A third rocket landed just outside a checkpoint at the entry of the Green
Zone, shearing off the corner of a building and wounding five Iraqi
civilians. The rocket landed 50 yards in front of vehicles driven by
employees of The New York Times.
The force of the rocket, one employee said, ripped a four-inch-deep hole in
the road's tarmac surface.
"All the cars started speeding toward us, like ****roaches out of a drain,
trying to get away from there as quickly as possible," the employee said.
Mohammed Razak, 16, who works at a bakery on the first floor of the building
that was hit, went back to work soon afterward.
"The souls are given to us by God and he is the one who decides to take
them," Mr. Razak said. "It's our living and we have to keep working."
U.S. and Iraqis Battle Militias to End Attacks
By ERICA GOODE and MICHAEL R. GORDON
BAGHDAD - Sharp fighting broke out in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on
Sunday as American and Iraqi troops sought to control neighborhoods used by
Shiite militias to fire rockets and mortars into the nearby Green Zone.
But the operation failed to stop the attacks on the heavily fortified zone,
headquarters for Iraq's central government and the American Embassy here. By
day's end, at least two American soldiers had been killed and 17 wounded in
the zone, one of the worst daily tolls for the American military in the most
heavily protected part of Baghdad. Altogether, at least three American
soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, and at
least 20 Iraqis were killed, mostly in Sadr City.
The heightened violence came on the eve of Congressional testimony in
Washington by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Iraq,
and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador here, to defend their strategy
for political reconciliation and improved security in the country.
The Green Zone attacks were, symbolically at least, a sign that forces
hostile to the United States are still able to strike at the American nerve
center and seat of government power in the capital of Iraq.
The attacks were sure to feature prominently in the scheduled hearings,
giving ammunition to Democratic critics who argue that Iraq is not making
progress, as well as Republicans who say it would be foolish to reduce the
American troop presence in Iraq quickly.
The attacks also came as Iraq's national security council intensified
pressure on the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political group led by
Moktada Al-Sadr, the powerful anti-American Shiite cleric, to disarm. In a
statement, the council declared that all political parties must immediately
dissolve their militias and surrender their weapons if they wish to take
part in elections.
The timing of the statement was seen as a message in particular for Mr.
Sadr, who represents the biggest political threat to Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki and his associates, and who derives much of his support from
Sadr City, which has been encircled by American and Iraqi troops for more
than a week.
Violence in Sadr City first flared more than a week ago after Mr. Maliki
began a poorly coordinated military campaign to retake the southern port
city of Basra from Shiite militias.
The fighting in Baghdad had calmed considerably in recent days. On Sunday
morning, though, Iraqi troops backed by an American Stryker squadron moved
through a southern section of Sadr City, and were met by militia fighters
armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
After the Iraqi soldiers came under attack, American forces in Abrams tanks,
Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles rumbled to the scene. An American
helicopter fired at least two Hellfire missiles at militia fighters armed
with rocket-propelled grenades, and blasted one of their vehicles. Later at
least one militia-fired rocket hit the Jamilla market, a heavily frequented
part of Sadr City, where clashes left at least 20 people dead, Iraqi
officials said.
A large whoosh from a rocket disrupted a briefing in Sadr City for a small
group of reporters, prompting correspondents and soldiers to duck. The news
conference at the lone American Army and Iraqi combat outpost in Sadr City
was given by Gen. Abud Qanbar Hashim, the Iraqi commander for Baghdad, and
Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, who leads the American division charged with
securing the capital, and began as bursts of gunfire rattled nearby streets.
General Hammond explained later that the projectile was probably an errant
107-millimeter rocket aimed at the Green Zone and launched from north Sadr
City.
Mr. Maliki has issued a series of seemingly inconsistent decrees in recent
days about his willingness to take on militias. General Abud said the Iraqi
operations in Sadr City were not aimed at any specific political movement.
The statement seemed intended to reassure Mr. Sadr's followers, but General
Abud insisted that Iraqi security forces would take action against any
militia brandishing arms.
"The main thing is that arms should be in the hands of the state," he said.
"And we will never allow any armed group to carry arms as an alternative to
the state to provide security to the citizens."
The immediate concern of the American forces was more tactical: trying to
shut down the mortar and rocket attacks that have become a daily problem for
the Green Zone.
Moving into Sadr City's streets and alleys, American soldiers have taken up
positions in abandoned houses, living in primitive conditions and trying to
fend off counterattacks from a enemy fighters who appeared to have a
well-organized system of command and control.
Sgt. Maj. Michael Boom of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry
Regiment, said more than 1,000 American and Iraqi troops were operating in
his sector. He said the recent fighting began March 25 when the Americans
heard that Iraqi checkpoints were being overrun.
"My soldiers pushed out to help the Iraqi security forces re-establish the
checkpoints. In some cases, we actually took over the checkpoints until they
could get forces back there," he said. "My companies have been taking direct
fire every day."
On March 28, the Americans moved to take control of the militia rocket sites
to try to blunt the attacks on the Green Zone. The militias responded with a
heavy counterattack the next day.
"They obviously wanted to retain that ground and maintain their ability to
shoot rockets with impunity," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, the squadron's
commander. "They have a command and control structure. They have a plan in
place."
The fighting increased as Iraqi forces began to clear a neighborhood to the
east of the outpost, with American support.
Over the past week, Mr. Maliki has also been trying to recoup the political
damage he sustained when his American-supported military assault in Basra
met with intense resistance from militias. After a six-day stalemate,
high-level negotiations resulted in Mr. Sadr's issuing a statement on March
30 ordering his followers to stop fighting.
The security council - whose members include Mr. Maliki; President Jalal
Talabani; Mahmoud al-Mashidani, the speaker of Parliament; and
representatives of the major political parties - demanded that the militias
be disbanded. The council's 15-point statement also called for all parties
to "appreciate the role of the army in imposing security and order in Basra
and the rest of the provinces."
Mahmood Uthman, an independent member of Parliament who is part of the
Kurdish Alliance, said he doubted that the Sadr group would go along. Mr.
Sadr and his followers, he said, are likely to insist that any call for
disarmament be applied to other political parties with militias, including
the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, whose armed wing is the Badr militia.
Luway Smessem, the head of the Sadr party's political committee, said that
though the group agreed with much of the statement, party officials had
"reservations" about some points, including the demands that militias
disband and that Mr. Maliki's Basra campaign be supported.
"The Mahdi Army is not a militia," he said. "We don't have masked fighters
and everyone knows who we are and who our commanders are."
Until Sunday, an American soldier had not died from attacks on the Green
Zone since last July.
In addition to the deaths in the Green Zone, a rocket fired at a military
base in the Rustimiya neighborhood of Baghdad killed one American soldier
and wounded 14.
A third rocket landed just outside a checkpoint at the entry of the Green
Zone, shearing off the corner of a building and wounding five Iraqi
civilians. The rocket landed 50 yards in front of vehicles driven by
employees of The New York Times.
The force of the rocket, one employee said, ripped a four-inch-deep hole in
the road's tarmac surface.
"All the cars started speeding toward us, like ****roaches out of a drain,
trying to get away from there as quickly as possible," the employee said.
Mohammed Razak, 16, who works at a bakery on the first floor of the building
that was hit, went back to work soon afterward.
"The souls are given to us by God and he is the one who decides to take
them," Mr. Razak said. "It's our living and we have to keep working."
