Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
NPR
May 12, 2008
Morning Edition (NPR), 7:10 AM
RENEE MONTAGNE: A day-old truce appears to be holding in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. It’s a fragile peace because the underlying issue that sparked weeks of violence has not been settled, a Shiite power struggle between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
We’ll hear more about that power struggle in a moment. First, NPR’s Tom Bowman reports from the Iraqi capital on Sadr City.
TOM BOWMAN: Staff Sergeant Ahmad of the Iraqi army mans a checkpoint on a bridge leading into Sadr City. He watches a steady flow of residents cross the bridge and disappear into the haze, young and old, they’re not in a hurry; it’s almost a leisurely Sunday stroll. Trucks full of food and produce lumber alongside this human stream. It appears that Sadr City is finally shaking its six-week-old battle. Sergeant Ahmad says don’t be too sure.
SERGEANT AHMAD [Iraqi Army] (Translated.): If you listen, you can hear the firefights.
BOWMAN: He gestures off to his left, toward a cluster of worn buildings in the distance. Explosions are soon heard. Thick, black smoke curls into the sky.
AHMAD (Translated.): Many firefights. A few minutes ago, we had a company where one of the soldiers got shot by a sniper and now in that direction, there’s a firefight.
BOWMAN: Mehdi Army sources tell NPR that Sadr fighters are being told to maintain their positions, wait for orders, don’t fight yet. American tanks rattle past and a truck carrying a long, thick concrete section for a security wall. Then out of nowhere, a hand cart pushed by a half-dozen men gesturing wild-eyed. Inside, are two young boys crying and bewildered. Eighteen-year-old Mohammed Abbas is among those pushing the cart.
MOHAMMED ABBAS [Baghdad Resident] (Translated.): These children are in terrible condition. They should be in an American vehicle, not a handcart.
BOWMAN: The two boys are carried to a taxi. Two adults hop in. An hour later, they’re back at the bridge. One boy pulls up his shirt to display a bandage. The handcart heads back inside Sadr City, as another Iraqi army soldier, Sergeant Mohammed, says the boys were hit by a mortar.
SERGEANT MOHAMMED [Iraqi Army] (Translated.): We don’t know where that mortar came from, maybe it’s American, maybe not.
BOWMAN: The Iraqi army doesn’t have mortars he says with a shrug. We have rocket-propelled grenades. And he adds that the cease-fire may take hold, no matter he says. The area will be safer with all these new concrete walls.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Baghdad.
May 12, 2008
Morning Edition (NPR), 7:10 AM
RENEE MONTAGNE: A day-old truce appears to be holding in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. It’s a fragile peace because the underlying issue that sparked weeks of violence has not been settled, a Shiite power struggle between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
We’ll hear more about that power struggle in a moment. First, NPR’s Tom Bowman reports from the Iraqi capital on Sadr City.
TOM BOWMAN: Staff Sergeant Ahmad of the Iraqi army mans a checkpoint on a bridge leading into Sadr City. He watches a steady flow of residents cross the bridge and disappear into the haze, young and old, they’re not in a hurry; it’s almost a leisurely Sunday stroll. Trucks full of food and produce lumber alongside this human stream. It appears that Sadr City is finally shaking its six-week-old battle. Sergeant Ahmad says don’t be too sure.
SERGEANT AHMAD [Iraqi Army] (Translated.): If you listen, you can hear the firefights.
BOWMAN: He gestures off to his left, toward a cluster of worn buildings in the distance. Explosions are soon heard. Thick, black smoke curls into the sky.
AHMAD (Translated.): Many firefights. A few minutes ago, we had a company where one of the soldiers got shot by a sniper and now in that direction, there’s a firefight.
BOWMAN: Mehdi Army sources tell NPR that Sadr fighters are being told to maintain their positions, wait for orders, don’t fight yet. American tanks rattle past and a truck carrying a long, thick concrete section for a security wall. Then out of nowhere, a hand cart pushed by a half-dozen men gesturing wild-eyed. Inside, are two young boys crying and bewildered. Eighteen-year-old Mohammed Abbas is among those pushing the cart.
MOHAMMED ABBAS [Baghdad Resident] (Translated.): These children are in terrible condition. They should be in an American vehicle, not a handcart.
BOWMAN: The two boys are carried to a taxi. Two adults hop in. An hour later, they’re back at the bridge. One boy pulls up his shirt to display a bandage. The handcart heads back inside Sadr City, as another Iraqi army soldier, Sergeant Mohammed, says the boys were hit by a mortar.
SERGEANT MOHAMMED [Iraqi Army] (Translated.): We don’t know where that mortar came from, maybe it’s American, maybe not.
BOWMAN: The Iraqi army doesn’t have mortars he says with a shrug. We have rocket-propelled grenades. And he adds that the cease-fire may take hold, no matter he says. The area will be safer with all these new concrete walls.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Baghdad.