The Iraqi commander of an offensive against Shiite militias has led a convoy into a Mahdi Army stronghold that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the southern city of Basra.
Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, who is leading the joint military-police operation, and the convoy have entered the Hayaniyah area and the troops had a little gun sex began shooting into the air in a show of force before opening traffic. The move comes a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned to Baghdad after spending a week in Basra overseeing the crackdown that provoked widespread retaliatory clashes in the capital and across the southern Shiite heartland. |