Green Zone hit as militia fighting intensifies

[unhappycamper]

Iraqi police take a defensive position in Basra, Iraq on March 25. Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began.


Green Zone hit as militia fighting intensifies
By Robert H. Reid - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 26, 2008 6:51:48 EDT

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s leaders faced their gravest challenge in months as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled government forces for control of the southern oil capital, fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and unleashed rockets on the Green Zone.

Armed Mahdi Army militiamen appeared on some Baghdad streets for the first time in more than six months Tuesday, as al-Sadr’s followers announced a nationwide campaign of strikes and demonstrations to protest a government crackdown on their movement. Merchants shuttered their shops in commercial districts in several Baghdad neighborhoods.

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters fought Shiite militiamen in Baghdad’s Sadr City district after the local office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party came under attack, the U.S. said. Residents of the area reported intermittent explosions and gunfire in the area late Tuesday.

An American soldier was killed in fighting Tuesday afternoon in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. No further details were released, and it was unclear whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

Although all sides appeared reluctant to trigger a conflagration, Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, assistant commander of the U.S. task force operating south of Baghdad, said the situation in the south was “very complicated” and “the potential for miscalculation is high.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_iraqviolence_032508/

[Botany]

1. Round up every College Republican, Rush Fan, and bush Admin. worker ....

.... past and present and send them to Iraq ASAP. This might get very ugly
very quickly i.e. full out civil war.

BTW send the people from Time Mag who had the banner on their cover,
"Now what? after the success of the surge"