Shiite militia clash with Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad

[tocqueville]

by Ammar Karim
8 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi and US forces have fought a deadly gunbattle with Shiite militiamen after launching an overnight raid on an impoverished eastern Baghdad district, defence ministry and militia officials said.

In a spate of rebel attacks on Monday, 11 people, including six Iraqi soldiers and two policemen, were killed across Iraq on Monday.

Separately, the US military announced the deaths of three of its soldiers southwest of Baghdad on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack.

The gunbattle, which pitched Iraqi forces and US advisers against the Mehdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was the first such clash since US reinforcements began rolling into Baghad to quell a brutal sectarian war

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060807/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest_060807122127;_ylt=An5I_NCx804YyEcTzasvP9qaOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[Nimrod2005]

1. And they Iraqi/US so called enforcement...etc. will clash with Kurds too..

matter of time, Kurds won't accept anyone "policing" their streets and Al Sadr won't...Iraq can get much much uglier still!

[NNN0LHI]

2. That doesn't sound like a civil war to me n/t

[leftchick]

3. and look who gets wounded

Two wounded Iraqi babies rest at a hospital in Baghdad's poor neighborhood of Sadr City. Iraqi and US forces have fought a deadly gunbattle with Shiite militiamen after launching an overnight raid on an impoverished eastern Baghdad district.(AFP/Ahmad Al Rubaye)

[Oversea Visitor]

4. This articles damn confusing

Lets see the parties involve
1) Iraqi force
2) US force
3) Shiite militiamen
4) Defence ministry
5) Militia Officials :rofl: Officials ?????
6) Rebels ??????
7) Iraqi soldiers ..... OK
8) policemen
9) US military
10) US advisers
11) Medhi Army

Ok me read articles

[tocqueville]

6. You can sum up that into 4 parts

US forces
Iraqi forces/police : a lot of Kurdish Peshmergas hating both Sunnis and Shiites or mercenaries with only loyalties to their ethnic group trying to make a living, all this under "control" of a coalition "government".
Shiites militias = Mehdi's army. And yes they have officials, it's not a ragtag gang. They are very much like the Hezbollah.
Rebels = Sunnis, former Baathists or people that don't want to be evicted by the Shiites.

the point is that so far the Shiites have been the allies of the US, when the Sunnis mostly stood for the insurgency because Saddam was a Sunni. The situation in Lebanon (and probably Iranian influence) are reshuffling the deck of cards. The Shiites are 60% of the population. If they start a general insurgency, the US has only one option : cut and run.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the end...

[Oversea Visitor]

9. welll i read articles

There was multi national coalition force
Insurgents
even gunmen

:rofl: I need to pick writer mind. One hell of a mess.

There is way to many parties. And gee me think reporter writes the way he see it. It is a mess

[jpkenny]

5. A new "democracy" holds demonstrations against US and Israel and

this is what happens according to this article. If true, Iraq has some kind of "democracy."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4F17216-8E8E-4B9C-9CA5-DEFAD61DC47B.htm

[Oversea Visitor]

10. Yup 100,000 of them

What the hell they thinking doing a raid on them so soon after the demonstrations.
Do they want a bloodbath?
Gee if it get trigger and you slaughter the 100,000 all hell break lose.

[bigtree]

7. NPR said this morning that the US is concealing the # of troops

sent to Baghdad. They put the number at 7000 as the generals 'on the ground' predict civil war.

[tyedyeto]

8. So, they are militia now? Or are they still insurgents? n/t