In The Iraq Civil War
McClatchy reports that Iraqi leader threatens fight ‘to the end,’ as militia puts up fierce resistance
BAGHDAD — As gun battles raged in the southern port city of Basra, parts of Baghdad and neighboring provinces, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in effect declared war on Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army, saying he’d fight the militia “to the end” and never negotiate.
In Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, President Bush praised Maliki’s “bold decision” to confront Shiite militias and said it was evidence that the Iraqi military is increasingly confident and able to act on its own. In fact, the U.S. military is providing air cover, embedded advisers and ground reinforcements for the Iraqi offensive.
Three days into a U.S.-backed government offensive, however, the Mahdi Army retained control of key neighborhoods of the southern port city of Basra and was able to prevent Iraqi soldiers and police from penetrating its strongholds.
At least 189 people have been killed in the Basra offensive, neighboring provinces and Baghdad since early Tuesday morning, government health and security officials reported. Of these, 97 were killed and 300 were injured in Basra, health officials said.
In other news, oil leapt to $107/barrel on news that one of the two major pipelines to the port of Basra was blown up and everyone is hunkered down in the Green Zone due to the rocket and mortar fire, while MAC-V MNF-I tells us this shows that the Surge™ worked. The Iraqi government would probably have said the same thing if their spokesman hadn’t been kidnapped.
2 comments
HIya 🙂
Been AWOL… lol
Had a bunch of health & PC problems to deal with. *shrug* such is life…
Sorry, but you are totally wrong! Fred Kegan says so! And you know he’s never wrong! Or… is that never right? Hmmmm… I get those
wrongrightwingnuts all confused. I haven’t been getting the wingnut memo’s due to no email access.Anyway… C&L has the story. 😀
Wronger than Wrong: Fred Kagan decrees “civil war in Iraq is over”
Oh! And this was precious! LOL It’s not funny really I know, but… it is!
Incompetence Alert: Pentagon gives inexperienced 22 year-old $300 million contract
You know that stories like that really make America safe from countries that would love to see the USA end. I can see several nations updating battle plans after confirming these stories.
So, good to be back. But it will be intermittent for awhile. Hope everyone is well and good! 😀
Cheers!
We are all crawling along as the weather finally gets a little warmer.
Sorry to hear about the cyber and real world ailments, welcome back.
You really have to wonder how someone who lives in a Miami apartment, has a company with a total of 8 employees, and isn’t related to Chalabi ends up with a Pentagon contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
If you need ammunition, you go to a company that makes ammunition. Given what the contract was for, it would have been cheaper to setup a reloading factory in Kabul and hire locals. You can buy the components in the area and save yourself a lot of shipping costs.
It’s like the contract officials have no idea what they’re buying, and who is a logical supplier.