Battle for Basra appears stalemated

[earth_as_one]

A major battle in Iraq appears stalmated.

March 30, 2008
Times Online UK

Mahdi Army holds firm as Iraqi PM risks all in battle of Basra

The future of Iraq could be decided by the power struggle raging in the country’s second city

THE arrival of the Iraqi army supported by US warplanes did little to dent the defiance of Abu Sajad and his 22 comrades in a Shi’ite militia cell holed up in a mosque in Basra.

Alerted by a mobile phone call to the arrival of US military reinforcements, Abu Sajad calmly selected eight fighters and dispatched them to plant roadside bombs packed into red plastic fruit crates.

“We are to plant them throughout the Qaziza neighbourhood to welcome the army when they try to enter the area,” he told his men. He sent the bombers away on scooters and motorcycles which, he explained, were “quicker to move and less conspicuous . . . We have a great surprise for the army”.

As night fell after a fifth day of heavy fighting around Basra yesterday, Iraqi forces controlled by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime...

...Ragtag members of the Mahdi Army, a heavily armed militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric with close links to Iran, vowed to fight to the death to prevent Maliki from imposing government control on the southern port at the heart of Iraq’s potentially hugely profitable oil industry.

“We have received a shipment of Strela antiaircraft rockets,” Abu Sajad boasted to a Sunday Times reporter.

“We intend to use them to prove to the world that the Mahdi Army will not allow Basra to be turned into a second Falluja...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3646595.ece

Insurgent weapons of choice:

Russia's Strela and Igla portable killers
In the local conflicts that flare up in the current world situation, man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) have become the major threat to airpower. Simple, cheap, easy-to-use, non-suppressible and effective, MANPADS are ideal for numerous "rouge countries" and terrorist organizations. The Soviet Union created a family of increasingly effective (and available) MANPADS systems. The Strela-2 (SA-7) and -3 (SA-14), Igla-1 (SA-16), and Igla (SA-18) are much more easy to get than Western systems, while Igla is just as capable as the US Stinger. The Russian Igla-S (or Super Igla) currently under development is an extremely deadly weapon...

...Sections equipped with the special 1L110 display panel, which looks like a field notebook computer, and a connection to the higher, integrated land-forces air-defense system, engagements by Igla units can be planned on a higher level of command and can be combined with engagements by other air-defense assets. So it happens that a group of enemy aircraft maneuvering to avoid air-defense fires can be pushed onto a deadly carpet of "needles," with operators aware and ready...

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-54426.html

Modern RPGs
wiki

The RPG-29 is a tube-style rocket launcher designed to be carried and used by a single soldier. On the top of the launch tube is the x 2.7 1P38 optical sight. On the bottom of the tube is a shoulder brace for proper positioning along with a pistol grip trigger mechanism. A 1PN51-2 night sight can be fitted.

Two projectiles are available for the weapon; the PG-29V anti-tank/anti-bunker round and the TBG-29V thermobaric anti-personnel round. The PG-29V round has a tandem-charge HEAT warhead for defeating explosive reactive armour (ERA). Eight fins pop out as the rocket leaves the launch tube and stabilize the missile in flight.

The warhead is extremely powerful, and in tests conducted against T-80 and T-90 tanks it penetrated the tanks over their frontal arcs.

 

[earth_as_one]

Gwynne Dwyer's Viewpoint:

Gwynne Dyer: The battle and the reality in Basra
Monday March 31, 2008
By Gwynne Dyer

The rhetoric is triumphalist, and the storyline simple and consistent. "We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue till the end. No retreat," said Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, on Thursday.

"As we speak Iraqis are waging a tough battle against militia fighters and criminals in Basra, many of whom have received arms and training and funding from Iran," said President George W. Bush in Dayton, Ohio. But the reality is less persuasive.

The offensive in Basra could only have been launched with the support of the United States, since Prime Minister Maliki has admitted that he "cannot move a company of troops" without American consent. It is really aimed mainly at the Mehdi army, the militia that backs Moqtada al-Sadr. And it is not likely to succeed.

Moqtada al-Sadr is the main rival to Maliki's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its associated Badr militia for the loyalty of Iraq's Shiite majority. Basra is a key battleground for this struggle, not only because its two million people are almost all Shiite, but because most of Iraq's oil is produced nearby and exported through Basra and the militias need money.

The Mehdi and Badr militias have been waging a low-intensity battle in Basra for control of these resources for more than a year. You can see why the Bush Administration wants Maliki to win, for his party supports - indeed, depends on - a continued US military presence in Iraq, while Moqtada al-Sadr insists that all US troops go home. But it's harder to see why they thought Maliki could win. The Mehdi militia in Basra is well enough armed to fight the Iraqi Army to a standstill in the narrow streets of the sprawling slums where most of its supporters live. Moreover, Maliki has committed only 15,000 soldiers to the battle in Basra, which isn't very many given how street-fighting swallows up troops. (He also has 15,000 heavily armed police available for the battle, in theory, but Basra police have close connections with the local militias and cannot be counted on to fight them.)

At the time of writing, four days into the battle in Basra, the Iraqi Army's offensive seems to have stalled, while new fronts have opened up in other cities across the south of Iraq and in Baghdad, already the scene of massive protests by Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10501017

Gwynne Dyer usually has excellent war analysis.

Recent Development:
AP

AP foreign, Sunday March 30 2008 By KIM GAMEL

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) - In a possible turning point in the recent upsurge in violence, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Shiite militiamen off the streets Sunday but called on the government to stop its raids against his followers.

The government welcomed the move, which followed intense negotiations by Shiite officials, including two lawmakers who reportedly traveled to Iran to ask religious authorities there to intervene.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose offensive that began Tuesday in the oil-rich southern city in Basra sparked the crisis, called al-Sadr's statement ``a step in the right direction.''

But fighting continued in the Basra area after the announcement...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7423655

 

[zoofer]

When you are getting the worst of it you call a truce.

Old Hamas tactic.

 

[Praxius]

Funny, this isn't the same reporting I've been reading all weekend about this.

I've seen a few reports in regards to some Iraqi troops begining to lay down their arms and refusing to fight Sadr's forces. In fact the headlines were "Crisis in Iraq" and considdered a possible turning point in the war. Iraqi's in uniform but masked faces to avoid identity were telling the media that the only way this war would truly end would be with the US's complete withdrawl and a new government put in place.

It's not as pretty pink as the above would make it seem.

Sadr: Iraqi troops surrender arms
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49434&sectionid=351020201

A top aide to Moqtada al-Sadr says several groups of Iraqi troops were surrendering their arms at the movement's office in Sadr City.

Sheikh Salam al-Afraiji, head of the Sadr movement in eastern Baghdad, said "groups of Iraqi troops came to us to lay down their arms."

"After the people heard the screaming of Marjya (religious schools) and Moqtada's call for peace and calm, groups of armed forces started coming to our office in Sadr City to lay down their arms," AFP quoted Afraiji as saying.

"They said 'we can't fight our own people. When we first joined the army it was to defeat terrorism and not to point our guns against the chests of our people'. We told them we would not take your weapons. They should be with you," Afraiji said.

Several media photographers were at the Sadr office when the troops arrived.

Meanwhile, Iraqi troops clashed with armed men in the central holy city of Karbala overnight, killing 12 gunmen, Karbala police says.

WTF? Several source pages I have seen over the weekend have been removed, including CTV, CBC ?

Typical.

Additional news:

Iraq's Sadr orders followers off streets
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_dc

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers on Sunday to stop battling government forces after a week of fighting in southern Iraq and Baghdad threatened to spiral out of control.

A crackdown on Shi'ite militants in the southern oil port of Basra has sparked an explosion of violence that has risked undoing the past year's improvements in Iraq's security.

"Because of the religious responsibility, and to stop Iraqi blood being shed ... we call for an end to armed appearances in Basra and all other provinces," Sadr said in a statement given to journalists by his aides in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.

"Anyone carrying a weapon and targeting government institutions will not be one of us."
Sadr's statement appeared aimed at averting a full-scale confrontation between his followers and Iraqi and U.S. forces that would plunge southern, mainly Shi'ite Iraq into chaos.

It was not clear what effect Sadr's call would have on the violence, but there appeared to be a lull in fighting in Basra and the southern city of Nassiriya, Reuters reporters said.
The declaration seemed to take his followers by surprise.

"We are now making phone calls to headquarters," a low-level Mehdi Army commander in Baghdad's Sadr City who gave his name as Abu Haidar told Reuters. "We don't know what to do. If we carry guns the government will oppose us, but if we put them down, the Americans will come, surround our homes and capture us."

A U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said there were clashes in Baghdad after Sadr's order, including three incidents in which U.S. forces opened fire from helicopter gunships, but some parts of the capital seemed quieter.

"I would say it is quieter, but our fighting is not done yet," he said. "We are not targeting any specific groups, but if someone is committing a violent act or about to commit a violent act then we will engage."

U.S. and British forces have become more deeply embroiled in the fighting, which has exposed a rift in Iraq's Shi'ite majority between parties in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government and Sadr's populist movement.

Sadr's followers have accused Maliki and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, his most powerful Shi'ite ally, of trying to crush them ahead of provincial elections due in October in which they are expected to make a strong showing.

'RANDOM ARRESTS'

Sadr's statement was the result of behind-the-scenes talks between the Sadrists and the ruling Shi'ite Alliance mediated by former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, Shi'ite politician Ahmed Chalabi and Sunni Arab parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani.

Chalabi told Reuters Sadr's statement was "the key to stopping the bloodshed in Basra" but the government also had to stop targeting Sadrists.

In his statement, Sadr called for an end to "random arrests" of his followers and for them to benefit from an amnesty law passed by parliament in February aimed at freeing thousands of prisoners from Iraqi jails.

The government welcomed Sadr's statement but said it would press on with its campaign for control over Basra, which is divided up among various militias and criminal gangs.

"The statement by Moqtada al-Sadr is a step in the right direction," Maliki said.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the operation would continue "until it achieves its goals." He said Iraqi troops focused on hunting down criminals, not Sadrists.

Scores of people have been killed in clashes in southern Iraq and in Shi'ite neighborhoods of Baghdad.

Authorities lifted an indefinite curfew in Baghdad with effect from 6:00 a.m. (11 p.m. EDT on Sunday) on Monday. Cars remain banned in three districts, however.

Maliki, in Basra to oversee the six-day-old operation, has given Shi'ite fighters until April 8 to turn over their weapons in return for cash.

Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji told journalists: "The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government."

Shortly after Sadr's statement, a salvo of rockets or mortars was fired at the Green Zone diplomatic and government compound in central Baghdad. The U.S. military has blamed rogue Mehdi Army militiamen for similar barrages in the past week.

But in Nassiriya a Reuters reporter said clashes had stopped and Mehdi Army fighters were seen withdrawing from the streets.

In Basra, there were sporadic clashes in the old city but otherwise there appeared to be a lull in the violence, a Reuters reporter said. An official in Sadr's office there, Ali al-Sinidi, said the cleric's order was being implemented.

Iraqi government forces have struggled to drive well-armed Mehdi Army fighters off the streets of Basra and British and U.S. forces have had to intervene. (Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Wisam Mohammed and Peter Graff in Baghdad; Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Jon Boyle)

 

[MHz]

"or about to commit a violent act then we will engage." "
Would that be like going outside? It wouldn't take many incidents of reprisal before that cease-fire was lifted. Getting the US out of Iraq is still 'on the books', no action in that direction will also end the cease-fire.

 

[MikeyDB]

Anyone got a "Mission Accomplished Banner for sale..?

As Iraq spirals into civil war, American corporations are making nearly as much money as the thieves and swindlers choking the life-blood out or the petroleum industry and leaving a wake of foreclosures lost jobs and spoiled futures as the legacy of America's war-profiteering government.

Why don't Americans DO something!?

Oh right...too late.