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Do Our Soldiers Work For Sadr? Perhaps Our “Fantastic” Secretary Of Defense Can Answer That One

Al-Maliki’s decision exposed the growing divergence between the U.S. and Iraqi administrations on some of the most crucial issues facing the country, especially the burgeoning strength of Shiite militias. The militias are allied with the Shiite religious parties that form al-Maliki’s coalition government and they are accused by Sunni Arab Iraqis and by Americans of […]

Al-Maliki’s decision exposed the growing divergence between the U.S. and Iraqi administrations on some of the most crucial issues facing the country, especially the burgeoning strength of Shiite militias. The militias are allied with the Shiite religious parties that form al-Maliki’s coalition government and they are accused by Sunni Arab Iraqis and by Americans of kidnapping and killing Sunnis in the soaring violence between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority.

Sadr City is the base of the country’s most feared militia, the Mahdi Army, which answers to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. Sadr’s strongly anti-American bloc is the largest in the Shiite governing coalition and was instrumental in making al-Maliki prime minister five months ago.

At midday Tuesday, al-Maliki issued an order setting a 5 p.m. deadline for removal of the U.S. checkpoints. A senior U.S. Embassy official said later that al-Maliki told U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in a meeting Tuesday that the checkpoints should be lifted.

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Sadr City residents celebrated both the flexing of the Shiite government’s clout and what they saw as a concession by the United States.

Children cheered. Drivers honked horns as they bounced into Sadr City on newly cleared streets. Pickup trucks full of young men sped down the district’s main roads. The men waved red-and-green banners of Sadr’s movement.

“We are very happy they lifted the barriers by the orders of Maliki the prime minister,” said Ali Saedi, who was selling falafel at a storefront as crowds celebrated into the night.

“It’s a good stand, to give orders to the Americans and the Iraqi army,” Saedi said. ~The Chicago Tribune

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