U.S.-backed Iraq assault on Mahdi Army fails

A U.S.-backed assault by Iraqi puppet troops on Premier Nuri al-Maliki’s rivals killed 605 Iraqis and some U.S. troops but failed to crush the Mahdi Army, its target.

Led by the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army is the largest nongovernmental armed force, with its troops coming from the poorest population in the Shiite community.

Fighting went on full force in the southern city of Basra, a center of oil production, for five days. It also spread to Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad like Sadr City. The Mahdi Army and either government or U.S. troops held pitched battles in many parts of the country, including Nasiriyah, Hilla, Al-Amarah and other places. Even the fortified “Green Zone” in the capital came under mortar attack.

Premier al-Maliki had gone to Basra himself to demand Mahdi Army commanders surrender and turn over their weapons within 72 hours or face destruction. Instead, U.S. and British air power had to intervene to stop the Mahdi Army from overrunning Iraqi government positions. Al-Maliki was evacuated by a U.S. helicopter on March 30, according to the Iraq Resistance Report.

The Mahdi Army held its ground everywhere. In some areas it sent the puppet army running.

On March 31 al-Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to comply with a cease fire. But he said his forces would refuse to hand over their arms as long as the U.S. occupied Iraq. Al-Sadr also demanded that the government grant a general amnesty to the Mahdi Army, release all imprisoned members of this force who have not been convicted of crimes, and bring back “the displaced people who have fled their homes as a result of military operations.”

The attack on the Mahdi Army turned into a small-scale version of the U.S.-Israeli abortive attack on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, when forces led by Hezbollah rebuffed the powerful Israeli Army. An Iraqi puppet Interior Ministry official said that “in the aftermath of the failed assault, the government had dismissed 150 police officers and 400 policemen for refusing to fight in the conflict.” (New York Times, April 1)

As of the morning of April 1, the media reported that the ceasefire was holding. One Mahdi Army official said, however, that al-Sadr’s order to prohibit fighting applied only to Iraqi security forces. If U.S. troops enter Sadr City, he said, the fight goes on. “Maybe our case with the government is over,” he said. “But not with the occupiers.” (New York Times, April 1)

Faced with a military debacle, the U.S. government and the Pentagon argued that the attack was completely the initiative of the al-Maliki government. According to the New York Times, however, the U.S. had all along been pushing al-Maliki to attack the Mahdi Army, which Washington considers too close an ally of Iran. Bush had called the clashes “a defining moment in Iraq.” (March 31)

The U.S. denial was also belied by the rapid intervention of U.S. and British air power. All over Basra, U.S. bombs were killing Iraqi civilians, whom Pentagon statements described as “militia gangsters.”

The al-Maliki regime’s spin was his claim that Iraqi troops were not targeting the Mahdi Army, but only “criminal elements” that had taken over Basra. It is apparent al-Maliki was weakened as a result of the failed assault, and al-Sadr strengthened. Both al-Maliki and the U.S. Embassy had to publicly thank al-Sadr for declaring the cease-fire.

This all may impact further on a national vote set for October. Even before the fighting, al-Sadr’s group was expected to win this vote big.

Washington’s initial strategy to conquer Iraq—based on “shock and awe”—collapsed long ago. Once an Iraqi resistance arose, the Pentagon proved incapable of winning, holding and stabilizing the country and exploiting its oil.

The U.S. soon moved from “shock and awe” to “divide and conquer” tactics. While Washington failed to conquer Iraq, it did succeed in dividing the Iraqis. Some major Shiite organizations that had been opponents of the Saddam Hussein government joined the puppet regime.

In the predominantly Sunni areas, the heroic resistance of nationalist, Islamic and Baathist-led forces stopped the Pentagon from securing and stabilizing Iraq. But up to now the U.S. occupation forces have been able to dig in and hold on, even as morale among U.S. troops plummets.

In all this the Mahdi Army and al-Sadr have played a contradictory role. On the one hand, the Mahdi Army rank and file is anti-occupation. Washington has attacked them with both words and weapons, calling them puppets of Iran.

On the other hand, instead of turning their fire on the U.S. occupiers and their local allies, the Mahdi Army has accepted a role in the puppet Maliki government. The question now is: Will the U.S.-al-Maliki open attack on the Mahdi Army push it closer to the Iraqi resistance movement?

In the midst of the Iraqi turmoil, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus is coming to Congress April 8-9 to report on “the success of the surge” and plead for more funds for a criminal U.S. war that has already cost the lives of a million Iraqis and 4,300 U.S. occupation troops.

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