With Sadr back in Iraq, only bad things can happen. I'm not sure why we didn't kill him long ago. I almost hesitated and said that it was probably too late to kill him, that he's too entrenched and that his death would almost certainly lead to civil war, but then I have this funny feeling that in a year from now I'll look back and say, how come we didn't kill him last year?

Al Jazeera's original headline said U.S. and British Battle Mahdi Army, but they've since changed it to Sadr's Mahdi army in Iraq clashes:

British and US forces in Iraq have clashed with armed supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a major Shia religious leader.

At least five people were killed in a pre-dawn raid in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad on Saturday, while in the southern city of Basra "a number" of al-Mahdi Army fighters died in an air strike.

The U.S. military in Iraq says Iraqi and coalition forces have detained a suspected terrorist cell leader and killed at least five insurgents during raids in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City.

A military statement said the person detained Saturday is believed to be the suspected leader of a cell known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosives from Iran as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for training....

In the southern city of Basra, military officials said British forces came under attack for more than two hours from insurgents in retaliation for the killing of their leader, Mahdi Army commander Wissam Abu Qader, on Friday.

Separately, U.S-led forces said they killed two terrorists, detained 23 suspected insurgents and destroyed a cache of explosives during operations Saturday against al-Qaida in Iraq, southwest of Taji.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:39 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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