Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 3, 2008 By Erica Goode
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces fanned out into the suburbs and ports of Basra on Wednesday, as life in that southern city slowly began to return to normal, with government offices reopening and residents venturing more confidently into the streets.
Witnesses said that Iraqi forces now controlled central Basra and its northern border, and that they had begun moving into militia strongholds north of the city.
But sporadic violence continued three days after the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army to stop its armed resistance to the American-supported Iraqi assault, and demanded concessions from the government in return.
Two Iraqi Army convoys were blocked from delivering medical supplies to neighborhoods where combat was heaviest during a six-day standoff between militiamen and government troops. One of the convoys was hit by a roadside bomb, the other by bullets.
A British Tornado fighter bombed rocket rails used to fire at Iraqi forces, the United States Air Force’s central public affairs office said. And a sniper wounded an Iraqi television cameraman traveling with one of the convoys.
Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, a spokesman for the American military, said at a news conference on Wednesday that two Iraqi Army battalions and a company of Iraqi marines had moved into Basra’s ports “to re-establish legitimate authority and control.”
The lucrative port operations in Basra are widely believed to be controlled by the militia of the Fadhila political party, which split from Mr. Sadr’s party.
Ali al-Siaidi, a spokesman for the Sadr party in Basra, said that in the Hayaniya neighborhood, where fighting raged last week, “there are raids and arrests and random shooting by the army on houses.”
In Baghdad, American and Iraqi troops continued to encircle the Sadr City neighborhood, which is dominated by the Mahdi Army militia.
Haitham Ibrahim, 27, a cameraman for the Iraqi television station Al Diyar, lost his legs when a homemade bomb exploded near where he was filming in the neighborhood, the manager of the station said.
Unconfirmed reports said that another bomb in Sadr City had killed five civilians riding in a minibus. Still, trucks entered the embattled area on Wednesday bearing food and other supplies, and the price of groceries, which doubled during the violence last week, was starting to decline, residents said.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, the capital, a mortar shell landed in the Yarmuk neighborhood, wounding a civilian and an Iraqi soldier. And gunmen attacked a car on Masbah Street, killing two women who worked for a communications company.
In Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi interpreter was killed, and three American soldiers were injured by a homemade bomb in Muqdadiya, American military officials said.
And in Salahuddin Province in the north, four people were killed and four others were kidnapped, including the leader of the Janabee tribe, when their van was ambushed by gunmen in Dhuluiya.
Qais Mizher and Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Basra, and Salahuddin and Diyala Provinces.
April 3, 2008 By Erica Goode
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces fanned out into the suburbs and ports of Basra on Wednesday, as life in that southern city slowly began to return to normal, with government offices reopening and residents venturing more confidently into the streets.
Witnesses said that Iraqi forces now controlled central Basra and its northern border, and that they had begun moving into militia strongholds north of the city.
But sporadic violence continued three days after the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army to stop its armed resistance to the American-supported Iraqi assault, and demanded concessions from the government in return.
Two Iraqi Army convoys were blocked from delivering medical supplies to neighborhoods where combat was heaviest during a six-day standoff between militiamen and government troops. One of the convoys was hit by a roadside bomb, the other by bullets.
A British Tornado fighter bombed rocket rails used to fire at Iraqi forces, the United States Air Force’s central public affairs office said. And a sniper wounded an Iraqi television cameraman traveling with one of the convoys.
Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, a spokesman for the American military, said at a news conference on Wednesday that two Iraqi Army battalions and a company of Iraqi marines had moved into Basra’s ports “to re-establish legitimate authority and control.”
The lucrative port operations in Basra are widely believed to be controlled by the militia of the Fadhila political party, which split from Mr. Sadr’s party.
Ali al-Siaidi, a spokesman for the Sadr party in Basra, said that in the Hayaniya neighborhood, where fighting raged last week, “there are raids and arrests and random shooting by the army on houses.”
In Baghdad, American and Iraqi troops continued to encircle the Sadr City neighborhood, which is dominated by the Mahdi Army militia.
Haitham Ibrahim, 27, a cameraman for the Iraqi television station Al Diyar, lost his legs when a homemade bomb exploded near where he was filming in the neighborhood, the manager of the station said.
Unconfirmed reports said that another bomb in Sadr City had killed five civilians riding in a minibus. Still, trucks entered the embattled area on Wednesday bearing food and other supplies, and the price of groceries, which doubled during the violence last week, was starting to decline, residents said.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, the capital, a mortar shell landed in the Yarmuk neighborhood, wounding a civilian and an Iraqi soldier. And gunmen attacked a car on Masbah Street, killing two women who worked for a communications company.
In Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi interpreter was killed, and three American soldiers were injured by a homemade bomb in Muqdadiya, American military officials said.
And in Salahuddin Province in the north, four people were killed and four others were kidnapped, including the leader of the Janabee tribe, when their van was ambushed by gunmen in Dhuluiya.
Qais Mizher and Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Basra, and Salahuddin and Diyala Provinces.