al-Maliki has rescinded the old "one AK-47 per household" rule

[NNN0LHI]

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/earlier-this-we.html

December 18, 2008

Confiscating Guns in Iraq's Firearms City

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Sadr City, the South Bronx of Baghdad, has always been a rough neighborhood. Needless to say, carrying a gun here is considered a legal, moral right. Today, American and Iraqi troops are trying to do the once-unthinkable, and take Sadr City's weapons away.

It's an amazing turnaround for a place that, just over half a year ago, was pretty much a no-go zone for U.S. and Iraqi government forces. I recently accompanied soldiers of Task Force 1-6 Infantry on a foot patrol around several blocks of Sadr City. This area saw intense fighting this spring after elements of the Jaish al-Mahdi militia (the so-called "special groups") used the area as a launching pad for rocket attacks against the International Zone (a.k.a. the "Green Zone.") U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive to stop the attacks; as street battles raged, U.S. engineers walled off the southern quadrant of Sadr City to push insurgent rocket teams beyond the range of the IZ.

A truce was concluded in May. Iraqi troops took up checkpoints north of the wall, and U.S. Army task force patrols the southern quadrant of Sadr City.

This was a joint U.S.-Iraqi "cordon and knock" search for illegal weapons. In this part of Baghdad, the government of Nuri al-Maliki has rescinded the old "one AK-47 per household" rule; unless a weapon is registered - or belongs to a member of the security forces - it will be confiscated. The patrol yielded a haul of 16 illegal weapons - mostly AK-47s, a few SKS rifles, even a nicely preserved .303 Lee-Enfield, perhaps a relic of the British occupation in the 1920s.