Maliki’s Power Still Waxing
Somewhat surprisingly, even as Iraqi troops are still occupying both Basra and Sadr City the Iraqi PM apparently has soldiers to spare for yet another offensive, this time in the hitherto relatively unknown Sadrist bastion of Amara.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has given “outlaws” and “criminals” in Amara and the rest of the southern province of Maysan until Wednesday to surrender and hand over weapons.
He has authorized security forces to launch major operations from Thursday, saying the state must end “chaos” and crime in the impoverished province bordering Iran.
More coverage here at Long War Journal.
Amara’s proximity to Iran, and consequent role as a transit point for arms and trainers from that country, means this can be interpreted as a shot across the bow of the extremist elements in Iran who have been arming Iraqi militias, especially those “Special Groups” that tend to be Sadrist offshoots.
It’s not often mentioned, but Iran’s is not a monolithic polity; there are a number of senior clerics (unaccountable, of course, in their theocratic system) who act without official sanction, using commando units sympathetic to their aims such as the Qods Force to carry out clandestine operations in Iraq. StrategyPage suggests the Iranian moderates are happy to have the Iraqis killing off their extremist countrymen.
UPDATE: The minions of The Man Who Cannot Lose issue a pre-emptive surrender:
BAGHDAD - Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr won’t resist a military operation in the southern city of Amarah unless government forces commit human rights violations and arrest suspects without warrants, a senior official and member of the cleric’s movement said Monday.
…
The tone differed from the defiance of Sadrist officials in the runup to past security operations in the southern oil hub of Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City, indicating Amarah may not witness the fierce fighting that accompanied crackdowns there.Al-Sadr’s main office in Amarah also was evacuated and turned over peacefully to the local government on Sunday, a provincial spokesman said, declining to be identified because of security concerns.
No doubt by surrendering another stronghold the crafty Sadr has yet again outmanuevered everyone, and I’m confident the media and lefty blogs will soon tell us how.
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1 comment
All in anticipation of Mastermind Sadr’s next move, wherein he gets a job at Jiffylube, where Maliki is known to get his oil changes, so he can change Maliki’s radio pre-set knobs. Then the democratically elected government will know the power of the theocrat mastermind!!
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