Forty people have been killed in a military raid and street fighting across Baghdad's Sadr City, the capital's volatile Shiite slum, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.And the survivors ran away!
Iraqi and coalition troops overnight killed 32 militants in Sadr City -- most of them in an airstrike -- in an operation targeting a cell with alleged links to Iran, the U.S. military said. Twelve others were detained in the raid.
Oh my, have they lost their minds by posting body counts? Who in their civilized mind would even care to know? (Besides those of us here at RB, of course.)
Separately, fighting broke out early Wednesday between U.S.-led coalition forces and Mehdi Army militiamen in Sadr City, leaving at least eight people dead and 10 wounded, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
And the survivors ran away!
The U.S. military denied that civilians were among the casualties in the raid.
Nobody had time to drop their guns or claim them as relatives for the blood money?
"There were women and children in the area when we conducted the operation but none were killed in the airstrike," Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said, according to Reuters.
The raid and the fighting in the densely populated neighborhood were announced as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki traveled Wednesday to meet top officials in Iran to discuss bilateral relations and security in Iraq. Some critics of al-Maliki, from the Shiite Dawa party, say he has been reluctant to take on other Shiite militants. Al-Maliki says the Iraqi military is targeting all insurgents, no matter what sect they hail from.
There is a lot of support for Iran in Sadr City. And the targeted terrorist cell is suspected of bringing weapons and the bombs called an "explosively formed penetrators" from Iran to Iraq and of "bringing militants from Iraq into Iran for terrorist training," the U.S. military said.
Well, there's at least 50 more bodies who won't be helping!
The military said the raid was built on "a series of coordinated operations" that commenced with a raid in the southern Iraqi city of Amara in June. Amara is in Maysan province in the Shiite heartland and it borders Iran. "Coalition forces continue to attack the supply chain of illicit materials being shipped from Iran," the military said.
One heck of a supply chain, isn't it?
The military was targeting an individual who "acts as a proxy between Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and an "the Iraqi EFP network."
Great. Gotta give that intel away now, don't we? I can smell a putzer prize coming for that reporter!
"Reports also indicate that he assists with the facilitation of weapons and EFP shipments into Iraq as well as the transfer of militant extremists to Iran for training."
As troops headed to the location, "they observed two armed men in tactical fighting positions assessed to be early warning operatives for the individual targeted in the operation." Troops engaged the two and killed them, and then detained 12 militants in raids on buildings.
"During the course of the operation, the assault force and the overhead aerial support observed a vehicle and large group of armed men on foot attempting an assault on the ground forces. Responding appropriately to the threat of the organized terrorist force, close air support was called and engaged the terrorist vehicle and organized terrorist force, killing an estimated 30 terrorists," the military said.
The street fighting between the Mehdi army and the troops lasted about three hours and was fought in various locations. It was not immediately known if those killed and wounded were civilians or members of the Mehdi Army -- the militia of populist anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who enjoys widespread support among Shiites in the eastern section of the capital.
I'm sure they'll all turn out to be civilians one way or another.
The fighting came as Iraq's government moved up a vehicle ban for Baghdad from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday. The official said the ban, which was imposed 15 hours earlier than expected, surprised residents who were headed to work and told by Iraqi security forces to return home.
Hee hee! Gotta be inconvenient as heck for the bad guys!
The ban is part of an effort, the official said, to curtail potential bomb attacks targeting the thousands of Shiite pilgrims who are trekking to a major religious shrine in the northwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya for an annual religious commemoration Thursday.
The insurgent activity of Shiite militias in Iraq has been a great concern to the United States, which says the Iran has provided weaponry and training for fighters in Iraq. And frequently, the U.S. military announces raids against "rogue" Shiite elements of the Mehdi Army.
Whatever is the difference between a rogue and conforming Shiite element of the Mehdi Army? Are conforming elements those who haven't been caught yet?
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