The news blackout of perhaps the most violent and desperate battle for years in Baghdad is baffling. What's going on is an extremely bloody fight between one Shiite faction and another. And yes, the US is now a central part of this internecine bloodbath. The Sunday Times of London has a riveting first-hand account from Sadr City of Maliki's attempt to destroy the Sadrites ahead of the fall elections:
The fight between Sadr and Maliki, between the dirt-poor who look to the firebrand cleric for inspiration and the relatively secure who support the prime minister, is one that neither side can afford to lose.
Last week the Mahdi fighters took advantage of the sandstorms, which grounded US helicopters, to blast the Iraqi army’s front line positions with roadside bombs, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire.
Embedded with them for four days and three nights, I witnessed the fighting at close quarters, learnt of preparations being made by Mahdi special forces to spread the violence to other parts of Baghdad and heard their commanders swear to paralyse the government and destroy Maliki if their own leader authorises all-out war.
The battle of Sadr City, with all the human misery it entails, is in danger of spilling out across the capital, reversing the security gains that followed last summer’s American troop surge.
It is little wonder that US commanders say the Shi’ite militias backed by Iran now pose a greater threat than the Sunni insurgents who were their deadliest enemies when Al-Qaeda in Iraq was at its peak.
“We can bring Baghdad to a standstill,” boasted one Mahdi commander. “Be assured that when all-out war is eventually declared, we will be able to take over the city.”
(Photo: An Iraqi family looks on May 3, 2008 at a-blood stained shirt belonging to a man killed the day before in clashes between US-backed Iraqi security forces and Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of hardline cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. US forces killed at least eight Shiite fighters in a series of firefights in Baghdad's Sadr City, the military said today. By Wissam Al-Okaili/AFP/Getty.)