Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
January 29, 2008 By Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Influential members of Muqtada al-Sadr's movement have urged the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric not to extend a cease-fire when it expires next month, officials said yesterday, a move that could jeopardize recent security gains.
Al-Sadr's August order for his feared Mahdi army to freeze activities for six months was seen by U.S. commanders as a major factor in a nationwide reduction of violence. But U.S. and Iraqi forces insisted they would continue to hunt down rogue fighters who ignored the order. Al-Sadr's followers claim this is a pretext to crack down on their movement.
The cleric has threatened not to renew the cease-fire unless the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki purges “criminal gangs” operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.
That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown against breakaway militia cells.
The political commission of al-Sadr's movement and some lawmakers and senior officials said they were urging him to follow through with his threat, pointing to recent raids against the movement in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala.
“We presented a historic opportunity when we froze the (Mahdi) army,” Nasser al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadrists in parliament, said yesterday. “But the step was negatively capitalized on.”
January 29, 2008 By Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Influential members of Muqtada al-Sadr's movement have urged the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric not to extend a cease-fire when it expires next month, officials said yesterday, a move that could jeopardize recent security gains.
Al-Sadr's August order for his feared Mahdi army to freeze activities for six months was seen by U.S. commanders as a major factor in a nationwide reduction of violence. But U.S. and Iraqi forces insisted they would continue to hunt down rogue fighters who ignored the order. Al-Sadr's followers claim this is a pretext to crack down on their movement.
The cleric has threatened not to renew the cease-fire unless the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki purges “criminal gangs” operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.
That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown against breakaway militia cells.
The political commission of al-Sadr's movement and some lawmakers and senior officials said they were urging him to follow through with his threat, pointing to recent raids against the movement in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala.
“We presented a historic opportunity when we froze the (Mahdi) army,” Nasser al-Rubaie, leader of the Sadrists in parliament, said yesterday. “But the step was negatively capitalized on.”