UK Military: Iraqi Soldiers Retake Amarah

[ECH1969]

The U.K. military on Friday said the Iraqi army has retaken control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah after the Shiite militia run by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr briefly held control in one of the boldest acts of defiance by the country's powerful, unofficial armies.

U.K. military spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge said 600 Iraqi army soldiers had retaken control of the Amarah, but not before 25 gunmen and police were killed in violence that began Thursday night. The Iraqi army dispatched two companies to Amarah, a city of 750,000, from Basra, the south's largest city.

Mahdi Army fighters had stormed three main police stations Friday morning, residents said, planting explosives that flattened the buildings in Amarah, a city just 30 miles from the Iranian border that was under U.K. command until August, when it was returned to Iraqi government control.

About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling in commandeered police vehicles, witnesses said. Other fighters set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.

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[Kagemusha]

1. Spin, spin, spin.

I see NOTHING in this article suggesting the Iraqi Army took Amarah from anyone or fired a single shot. Unlike the spin being put out, the Mahdi Army took police stations from the police which acted like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Badr Corps. They had no beef with the Iraqi Army in the first place and probably quietly withdrew as requested by Maliki or his subordinates without any violence whatsoever... but obviously the U.K. military wants to make this sound like the Reconquista.