Iraq to halt raids on Shiite Muslim gangs
The announcement by Prime Minister Maliki contradicts his pledge a day earlier to take on lawless elements in parts of Baghdad controlled by Sadr.
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today declared a halt to raids on armed Shiite Muslim gangs in Baghdad and southern Iraq, just a day after he announced his intentions to carry out operations in districts of the capital that are under de facto control of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
The new statement, released by Maliki's office, left unanswered whether the prime minister was retreating or taking a break from his pledge to take on lawless elements often associated by U.S. and Iraqi officials with Sadr's militia.
The announcement called for security forces to arrest anyone carrying a weapon on the streets.
Maliki's security forces battled last week with the Mahdi Army in the southern port of Basra, in an operation the prime minister said was meant to impose law and order on Iraq's second-largest city. The Sadr movement described the campaign as an effort by its political enemies to crush his grassroots movement ahead of provincial elections in October.
The fighting spread quickly to Baghdad before Sadr called on his followers to put down their arms Sunday. At least 1,000 Iraqi soldiers deserted during the clashes, a senior U.S. military official said today, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. More than half the police force in Baghdad's Sadr City and parts of Basra also abandoned their posts, a Western security official told The Times earlier in the week.
As both sides claimed victory, Maliki told reporters Thursday that he intended to take the fight to Baghdad's Mahdi Army strongholds of Sadr City and Shula.
The senior U.S. military officer expressed relief that Maliki had taken a pause today after making his previous bellicose comments.
"Iraqis need to figure out a way to deal with it [the militia problem], which means going in more slowly," he said.
Both American and Iraqi officials have conceded the government was taken aback by the response of the Mahdi Army when they launched the offensive in Basra.
Echoing comments by other Western officials, the U.S. military official expressed frustration over Maliki's apparently contradictory statements. "You can believe what he's saying now. You just don't know how long it'll last," he said, faulting the prime minister's advisors.
Before this recent operation, Maliki had expressed anger at U.S. commanders over military raids in Sadr City and other Shiite areas in the capital, a Western advisor to the Iraqi government told The Times in January.
