U.S. military hits a wall in Iraqi militia stronghold

"This is really like an episode of 'The Sopranos,' " said Sgt. Erik Olson, who spends much of his time visiting Jamila residents. "Every business out there is having to pay a percentage" to the Mahdi Army.

"They get a piece of everything," he said.

As the fighting drags on and as the wall goes up, the Americans are banking on residents here doing as Sunni Muslims did in western Anbar province: rejecting insurgents and allying themselves alongside U.S. and Iraqi forces. But they acknowledge that this will be more difficult in Sadr City, given Muqtada Sadr's control over much of the populace, his political clout and a family name that automatically earns him devotion from many. Sadr's father was a revered grand ayatollah slain on orders of Saddam Hussein along with two of Sadr's brothers.

Olson said that establishing a Sons of Iraq group, security volunteers who receive $10 a day from the U.S. military and who are credited with decreasing violence in cities and villages outside Baghdad, had been discussed in Jamila. The military even gave neighborhood leaders money to go hire some.

"But they came back," Olson said. "They didn't think Sadr City was ready for it yet."

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tina.susman@latimes.com