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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

U.S. forces flood Sadr City


An Iraqi soldier stands guard at a vehicle checkpoint at the entrance to Baghdad's  Sadr City on Sunday. U.S. soldiers entered the Shiite area  in the first major push there since an American-led security sweep began last month. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Leila Fadel McClatchy

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Hundreds of U.S. troops flooded Sadr City on Sunday in the first major policing sweep of the sprawling Shiite slum in East Baghdad controlled by Shiite militia.

The troops went door to door with Iraqi national police and Iraqi soldiers to clear resistance to a permanent joint presence in Sadr City that is part of the ongoing Baghdad Security Plan, the U.S. military said.

“So far, things are going fairly smoothly,” said Captain Curtis Kellogg of Multi National Division-Baghdad. “There haven’t been any reports of any large scale resistance. We’re setting the conditions so we can begin to establish a permanent presence.”

Since the plan began about a month ago, Sunni residents and politicians have accused the government of targeting Sunni areas and leaving Shiite militias – who’ve been accused of Sunni killings – unchecked. The operation on the west side of Sadr City, which is controlled by renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and blamed for much of the sectarian killing, may be a sign that the tide is turning. Some key arrests of high-level Sadr aides have also occurred in the last month.

So far, about 15 Joint Security Stations have been established in Baghdad, Kellogg said. The stations are permanent operation centers for Iraqi and U.S. security forces. The hope is that residents will turn to them for protection rather than to neighborhood gangs and militias.

More than 600 U.S. soldiers are participating from the 82nd Airborne Division and two Stryker companies from the 2nd Infantry Division. With them are 550 members of the Iraqi army and national police.

The operation, which began early Sunday morning, continued into the night and was expected to last for days. No arrests or casualties were reported. “Nobody was hurt, there was no violence and no injuries to Iraqis,” said Lt. Col. Scott R. Bleichwehl, Multi National Division-Baghdad spokesman. “Early indications are very good.”

Weeks of negotiations with Sadr City Mayor Raheem al-Darraji preceded the operation, Bleichwehl said.

The Mahdi Army has been operating under strict orders to remain low profile, Sadr loyalists have told McClatchy. Many top Mahdi Army commanders and Sadr aides have fled to Iran and Lebanon, and the U.S. military has said that al-Sadr is in Iran.

Hassan Zarkani, foreign relations representative for al-Sadr in Beirut, Lebanon, called the operations pointless U.S. meddling.

“We hope there is a day when Iraqis are the master and not under the American shoes,” Zarkani said. “Any security procedure that can end the Iraqi-on-Iraqi fight in any part of Baghdad,we welcome that. But Sadr City has not witnessed internal fighting.”

Al-Darraji called the operation a natural progression of the Baghdad Security Plan and said it was being conducted in “a very good way.” He said that under a deal he’d reached with the U.S. military, the security station would open Mar. 13.