Edging Their Way Into Sadr City, U.S. Officers Try Negotiating Before Buildup in Baghdad Slum

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 21, 2007; Page A08

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military is engaged in delicate negotiations inside Sadr City to clear the way for a gradual push in coming weeks by more American and Iraqi forces into the volatile Shiite enclave of more than 2 million people, one of the most daunting challenges of the campaign to stabilize Baghdad.

So sensitive is the problem of the sprawling slum -- heavily controlled by militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, personally approves all targets for raids inside the Baghdad district, military officers said.

Lacking sufficient troops so far to move deeper into Sadr City, the military has cautiously edged into the southern part, conducting searches and patrols, handing out supplies and using offers of economic aid to try to overcome resistance. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Operations forces and other U.S. and Iraqi troops have detained militia leaders in an effort to weaken their organization.

As additional U.S. forces flow into Baghdad this month and next, the plan is to step up the presence of U.S. and Iraqi troops in Sadr City, U.S. commanders said in interviews over the past three weeks. "More U.S. forces are needed in Sadr City to establish greater control, with Iraqi forces. We have to be matched," Col. Billy Don Farris, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade and senior U.S. officer for the area.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/20/AR2007052001405.html

[MADem]

1. Doesn't smell good to me. A trap in the making, is what I am sensing... nt

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Kagemusha]

3. I suspected as much. Talibani is getting out of Iraq for a reason

So this is the true face of the Surge? This is why we haven't seen anything yet and it'll take until September - because the core objective is the taming and subduing of Sadr City?

Good. Luck. I wish Steve Gilliard was well to educate us all again but the maps he's posted on his blog re: Sadr City showed to even the most casual observer why the place is a really hard place to fight unless you wanna burn the whole thing down and everyone in it. (Granted, some Republicans favor that solution but if Petraeus and Bush don't, it's a non-starter, literally..)

Bad, bad place to fight. That's why Saddam never succeeded in taming it.

[Javaman]

4. I predict a remodel of Sadr City Ramadi style. nt