US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, blamed for sectarian death squad killings, senior Iraqi officials say. The Pentagon, in a report last month, described Mehdi Army as the biggest threat to Iraq's security and diplomats say Washington is impatient to confront them.
Several officials in the Shiite political parties that dominate Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's unity government also say they are losing patience with Sadr's supporters and predict more raids like last week's joint US-Iraqi operation in which a senior Sadr aide was killed. "There will be limited and targeted operations against members of the Mehdi Army," a senior Shiite official told Reuters. "The ground is full of surprises but we think around January 5 there will be some operations. I can say no more." British forces in the southern oil province of Basra have also been conducting major raids against groups they describe as "rogue Mehdi Army", some entrenched in Iraqi police units.
Last week, British troops blew up the headquarters of Basra's Major Crimes Unit and said they freed tortured prisoners. "The Americans want a war with the Mehdi Army," said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, who is not American or British. "They want to get rid of the militia and it seems they will succeed in getting one." |