The Madhi Army takes on the Iraqi Army

[ECH1969]

Members of a Shiite militia killed at least 15 Iraqi soldiers in fierce fighting today in the southern city of Diwaniya, Iraqi officials said.

Some of the soldiers were executed in a public square after they ran out of ammunition, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanimi, the commander of the Iraqi army in the area.

He said that the fighting began overnight after soldiers arrested a man linked to the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr.

General Ghanimi said the fighting was still raging after more than 12 hours. “The clashes are still going on, and some of the neighborhoods are under the control of the militias,’’ he said this afternoon. “What is going on is street battles inside the city.’’

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/middleeast/28cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1156824000&en=878847851a4960ef&ei=5094&partner=homepage
--------------------------------------------------------

Sounds like the Madhi Army is winning.

[charlie and algernon]

1. sounds like all-out civil war

[whistle]

2. Mission Accomplished....Iraq war total failure

[Beelzebud]

3. No Civil War here. Nothing to see. Move along!

[SteppingRazor]

5. Exactly. This is just one army fighting an army of the same nationality...

for control of the nation's governing apparatus. It's TOTALLY not the same as a civil war. :eyes:

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Most of the Iraqi Army are Shia

That was a structural result of the Sunni insurgency. Shit, half these guys have cousins in the Mahdi Army. They ain't gonna fight them. Hell, half the Iraqi Army is probably funnelling US arms and supplies to the Shia militias.

[ECH1969]

6. There are a massive number of Kurds in the Iraqi Army

And, the officer corps of the Iraqi Army are half Sunnis even though there are few Sunnis in the army itself. The Iraqi Army sees itself as a super militia that isn't willing to share Iraq with the Badr militia or the Madhi Army.

[dave420]

7. Dictionary definitions

Civil war: "a war between political factions or regions within the same country"

War:
1. a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
2. a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations: The two nations were at war with each other.
3. a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns: the War of 1812.
4. active hostility or contention; conflict; contest: a war of words.
5. aggressive business conflict, as through severe price cutting in the same industry or any other means of undermining competitors: a fare war among airlines; a trade war between nations.
6. a struggle: a war for men's minds; a war against poverty.
7. armed fighting, as a science, profession, activity, or art; methods or principles of waging armed conflict: War is the soldier's business.

Seems pretty clear-cut to me.

[Igel]

8. I'd rather the actors were reversed in the headline,

but it's a good thing.

Otherwise we have the Lebanese and Afgan fictions repeated, and those are works of horror.