Sadr militia seizes parts of S.Iraq town-police

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

KUT, Iraq, March 25 (Reuters) - Armed followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seized control of five districts in the southern Iraqi town of Kut on Tuesday, police sources said.

The sources said Sadr's Mehdi Army militia were in control of the Jihad, Shuhada, Zahara, Sharqiya and Hawi districts of the city, which has 18 districts in total.

A Reuters witness in the city said he could hear shooting and explosions. U.S. warplanes were circling overhead.

Iraq's security forces have repeatedly clashed with Sadr's followers in Kut over the past two weeks.

...

Sadr called for nationwide sit-ins on Tuesday in protest against what he said he were attacks on his followers and threatened a "civil revolt" if the crackdown did not stop.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25614594.htm

[Botany]

1. Must be part of "the surge"

or maybe they are back from getting training in Saudi Arabia.

[lapfog_1]

2. Was that because Iran was busy training all those Al-Kady-in-Iraq guys???

[rateyes]

3. If Al-Sadr lifts the ceasefire...

we'll see why there has been less violence since the "surge," and we'll know the surge had nothing to do with it.

This is not good news.

[democrank]

4. Very bad news.

~PEACE~

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. It would appear the scheduled sit in escalated to the all out threatened civil revolt

Things are not going well at all with the US efforts to appease the the Sunni and Shi'ite sides of Iraq. First the US keeps killing the Sunni Awakening council members and not living up to the promises given to them causing dissent among their members. And now it would appear al-Sadr is also displeased with the way his ceasefire has been working out for his followers.

Considering the fact that I know those in power in the US are doing everything they can to keep this from coming to a head until after November, it exposes how extremely unstable the US Iraqi relations still really are.

[Supersedeas]

6. don't expect any of this to be televise during the Iraq news blackout