Mehdi Army in 'reign of terror'

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Friday, 9 November 2007, 16:09 GMT

Mehdi Army in 'reign of terror'

Iraqi police say the powerful Mehdi Army militia has
been involved in killing of hundreds of people in the
mainly Shia Muslim province of Karbala.

Maj Gen Raid Shaker told a public meeting the militia
of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr had brought four years
of terror and anarchy causing 670 deaths.

His allegations were backed by scores of angry people
attending the meeting.

Mr Sadr's supporters have rejected the allegations,
saying they are victims of a smear to cover up
excesses by police.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says such direct and
public allegations are unprecedented and may indicate
growing confidence on the part of the authorities that
they can take on the militia.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7087500.stm

[underpants]

1. Sounds like they are having themselves a "surge"

just saying

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Our villains have cool names these days

The Jaish al-Mahdi? That's a cool villain name.

The Janjui in Sudan? I wish I named my criminal syndicate that.

And how about some of those 9/11 conspirators. Zacharias Moussaoui might be crazy as a loon, but he's got a cool ass name. Ditto Zebediah Essabar, one of them Munich cats. That's a cool name.

[razorman]

4. How about the Janjaweed in Africa?

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. I mentioned them in my post

I called them the Janjui, though.

[tomg]

6. In Bushland, though, our heroes have

really cool names,a cool groups, and a fabulous backstory: Erik Prince, the leader of Blackwater.

"Erik Prince, only son of a wealthy self-made billionaire, who early in life learned martial arts and how to fly a plane. A former navy seal who served his country in hot spots around the world, he later worked in the White House but saw "a lot of things that he didn't agree with." With his father's untimely death, Erik decided to make a change - - - his way. Setting up a secret camp deep in the Great Dismal Swamp, he recruited topnotch former freedom fighters and former high-level government officials from intelligence who also wanted to make a difference. . . . for freedom. Together, this crack fighting unit formed Blackwater, a high speed group of commandos, a unit their President, an embattled George Bush, can call on to fight anywhere and everywhere that freedom is under threat.

I mean if you read his bio on Wikipedia and leave out all of the crazy fundamentalism and outright straight up fascist shit ( which does decidedly cut down quite a bit of text and more reality than you can shake a stick at) and just jazz it up a little: See - Batman meets Captain America.

Do you think that all of this is just some fevered dream in the minds of a DC comic book writer? Or maybe Stan Lee?

[Chovexani]

7. I've been thinking this for years

Someone please wake them up.

[ohio2007]

3. The Mehdi Army's grip on Karbala ---was broken in August after it was blamed for violent

clashes with police in which more than 50 people were killed.

Before that, such public accusations against the militia would have been unthinkable, our correspondent says.



the surge didn't take place in Karbala so it must have been 'the uprising' of Iraqi citizens taking back control of their streets or al Sadres orders to "stand down" is being obeyed by most of his militia.

[SoCalDem]

8. I guess the vacation al Sadr gave them..is OVER

He said he would sit out the 6 month surge..and that 6 months is over.,,,his men are well-rested, and caught up on their family time, so I guess the game is ON..:(

[ohio2007]

9. More militia members join army, police

More militia members join army, police
By Alwan Hussain
Azzaman, November 11, 2007
In a surprise move, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has issued a ruling under which 18,000 members of Shiite militias are to merge with the country’s army, police and security forces. The decision sparked anger and deep concern from several political factions particularly Sunni groups who believe that major Shiite factions have infiltrated the country’s armed forces and police.

The new militia recruits belong to the Dawaa party which Maliki leads and the Badr corps, the militia faction led by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, Maliki’s main Shiite ally in the government. The decision is bound to anger the Madhi Army, the powerful militias headed by the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr whose fighters Maliki has excluded from his decision.

Maliki’s Dawaa and Badr Corps’ Islamic Council have aligned themselves with the two major Kurdish factions currently ruling northern Iraq. Kurdish militias of Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, the regional president of the semi-independent Kurdish enclave in the north and those belonging to Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Talabani, currently the Iraqi president, also have the right to merge their fighters into separate army formations.



The Kurds are expected to set up new brigades of their own to be financed and armed by the government. The problem of factional militias has bedeviled Iraqi politics and is seen as a main hindrance to national reconciliation.The newly formed army and police units normally owe their allegiance to their political factions rather than the national flag.



http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?code=ennewsen

Can't imagine this merge on the heels of the surge is going to make a quagmire out of the current status quo we wallow in.
Wish them luck so we can downsize our footprint.