Charming Offensive
Brits, Iraqis apparently got organized in the wake of last month’s draw. I like the “fleeing militiamen” part. Roundup on this charming offensive, coupled with an Iranian charm offensive, and al Qaeda’s jealous bid for attention, starts with the Times of London:
IRAQI forces backed by British troops and artillery seized the main stronghold of the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern port city of Basra yesterday.
The operation, which also involved RAF and American aircraft, forced the cleric’s Mahdi army militants to cede control of a district where they had fought off an Iraqi onslaught last month.
A senior Mahdi source in Basra said British soldiers - believed to be SAS troops directing attacks - had accompanied the Iraqis as they moved into the district of Hayaniya.
British officials said only that “liaison teams” were advising Iraqi commanders on the ground, after US criticism during Gordon Brown’s visit to Washington of earlier failures to clear militants from the city.
Yesterday’s assault was launched five days after a kidnapped British journalist, Richard Butler, was rescued in Basra, apparently from the home of a Mahdi army officer. Butler, who was working for the American network CBS, had been held for more than two months but said he had not been mistreated.
The oil city awoke yesterday to heavy artillery and air strikes directed at Mahdi rocket launchers. The Iraqis then moved in with relative ease.
Witnesses said huge quantities of weapons, including hundreds of rockets and mortars, had been found abandoned. Some had been left in the street by fleeing militiamen.
The official tune on Basra, al-Sadr and the Iraqi military appears to have changed considerably. I mean the official NYT tune:
BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters.
That’s interesting. At last report, Iran had tactical commanders on the ground in Basra, even as it was magnanimously brokering peace. The mullahs need to make up their minds who they want to dance with. They’re not two-timing, I hope. Or three-timing.
By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting little resistance, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry in Baghdad.
Despite the apparent concession of Basra, Mr. Sadr issued defiant words on Saturday night. In a long statement read from the loudspeakers of his Sadr City Mosque, he threatened to declare “war until liberation” against the government if fighting against his militia forces continued.
But it was difficult to tell whether his words posed a real threat or were a desperate effort to prove that his group was still a feared force, especially given that his militia’s actions in Basra followed a pattern seen again and again: the Mahdi militia battles Iraqi government troops to a standstill and then retreats.
Rice shows up. Story’s actually about al-Sadr on the ropes and sounding desperate, though. Reuters:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday, a day after Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to launch an “open war” against the U.S.-backed government.
Six people were killed in overnight clashes between Sadr’s gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces in the cleric’s East Baghdad enclave, the sprawling Sadr City slum, police said.
Rice praised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s security efforts and said that she was in Iraq to help promote reconciliation among factions.
Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr’s followers last month that has led to the worst fighting in Iraq in nearly a year at a time when the United States is bringing home extra troops sent under last year’s “surge” strategy.
In a statement issued late on Saturday, Sadr, who launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004 but had declared a ceasefire last year, threatened to unleash tens of thousands of Mehdi Army fighters on Iraqi and American troops.
“I’m giving the last warning and the last word to the Iraqi government,” Sadr said. “Either it comes to its senses and takes the path of peace … or it will be (seen as) the same as the previous government,” he added, referring to Saddam Hussein’s fallen regime.
“If they don’t come to their senses and curb the infiltrated militias, then we will declare an open war until liberation.”
About Iran strongly endorsing militia-whacking operations, it looks like a broad charm offensive is underway, as the two/three-timing Iranians turn offensively charming to another party at the dance. More Reuters:
TEHRAN, April 20 (Reuters) - Iran accused U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of “Iranophobia” on Sunday for trying to blame Tehran for Iraq’s security problems.
Rice said last week she would press Iraq’s Arab neighbours at a meeting on Tuesday in Kuwait to do more to support Baghdad’s government and shield it from Iran’s “nefarious influences”.
Iran, as a neighbour of Iraq, will also attend the gathering.
“Regarding Rice’s statements, these statements are not something new. American officials follow the policy of Iranophobia,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in a weekly news conference.
“We see the developments in Iraq today are the outcome of the U.S. administration’s illogical policies. The American officials want to externalise the problems they are facing inside Iraq,” he said, adding U.S. policies in Iraq had failed.
Apparently a nerve has been struck. Here’s Iran’s injured love letter to the UN, decrying shameful disparagements of the Islamic Republic’s honorable intentions re fair Iraq. LA Times:
Undoubtedly, as an immediate neighbor, Iran stands to highly benefit from stability, security and prosperity in Iraq, as it will immensely suffer from insecurity and instability in that country. Iran’s best interest lies in a democratic and prosperous Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors. Therefore, we reject the baseless allegations that have been made against Iran by U.S. officials with regard to Iraq. There have never been any evidences presented by the U.S. officials to corroborate such allegations….
Iran’s support to the Iraqi political process and its efforts to assist Iraqis in their quest for peace, national harmony and reconstruction has been unabated and will remain unreserved. Iran has taken various concrete steps to help the Iraqi Government to bring about stability and development to the country, and has been unequivocal in both its strong support for stability and national unity in Iraq and in its condemnation of any efforts to cause instability, insecurity and sectarian violence and terrorism in the country.
Iran has strongly condemned the attacks on the Green Zone where the Iraqi government’s offices and diplomatic missions are located, as it has condemned the attacks on residential areas in Iraq, including those in Sadr city and Basra.
Therefore, the said allegations are but futile efforts to distract the international community’s attention, along with that of the US public opinion, from the real causes for the problems facing the US in Iraq that is continuation of foreign occupation and certain wrong policies and practices on the part of the occupying forces.
Meanwhile, in other terrorist has-been developments, AP:
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A man claiming to be the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq vowed in an audiotape released Saturday to launch a monthlong offensive against U.S. troops.
…
“We call on our beloved ones … that each unit should present the head of an American as a gift to the charlatan Bush … in addition to one of the apostate servants and slaves of the awakening (councils) during a one-month period,” he said in the tape, posted on an Internet site known for its militant contents.
He made clear that the 30-day period begins from the day of the audiotape’s release.
The release of the tape follows a series of deadly attacks that have raised fears of a possible al-Qaida in Iraq resurgence. Militants have targeted members of the awakening councils, Sunni Arab tribesmen and former insurgents who changed sides and are now fighting al-Qaida alongside U.S. forces.
A series of deadly attacks does not a resurgence make. Unless you want it to. Someone needs to explain to AP who prevailed in the Tet Offensive. It was the VC and the NVA, of course. While they were on the ropes, eyes swollen shut and grasping for the towel, the American press, the American anti-war movement and American politicians awarded them a TKO. Al Qaeda, Iran, al Sadr, all know full well that when it comes to war with America, it is not what you do but what you say that influences the press, the pols and ultimately, the public.
Topics: Iraq
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:45 am on Sunday, April 20, 2008
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