BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Friday extended a deadline for fighters to disarm after nobody responded, and U.S. forces were pulled deeper into the showdown between Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen.
The United States military said a Navy jet had strafed a mortar-launching position in the southern city of Basra with 20-millimeter cannon fire Thursday night, killing three "criminal militia members." It was the first time U.S. forces were directly involved in the combat in Basra, where Maliki launched an offensive against militias Tuesday.
The U.S. involvement, along with the 10-day extension of the surrender deadline, indicates that the operation was meeting fiercer resistance than expected, even as Maliki's government insisted things were going well.
Loyalists of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, who say his supporters are being unjustly targeted in the offensive, said the situation had exposed Maliki's weaknesses as a leader.
"That's an indication of his defeat, to call outside forces to strike his own people," said Falah Shanshai, one of 30 lawmakers with Sadr's bloc in parliament. "Force won't do any good. The people are suffering from lack of services, and Maliki brings in the planes."
On a warm and dusty day, Baghdad was under a virtual lockdown, its normally chaotic streets quiet except for occasional blasts from rockets and mortar shells thundering into the ground.
"We are scared, sitting home and not knowing what will happen in any minute," said Mithaq Majeed, who lives in an area under the sway of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Overnight, he said, militiamen used bulldozers to build sand hills to seal off the neighborhood.
The developments do not bode well for Maliki or U.S. military leaders, who had hoped the offensive would show that Iraqi security forces can handle major operations without outside help. They also come at a delicate time for the U.S., which plans to complete the pullout of 28,500 additional troops deployed last year by the end of July.
The British military had been in charge of security in Basra until December, when it handed over the job to Iraqis. Britain has about 4,500 troops in a base on the outskirts of Basra and plans to reduce that number to 2,500 by June. If the situation spins out of control, the U.S. could face pressure to send some of its own forces south. That would thin their presence elsewhere and could affect U.S. withdrawal plans.
