|
|
|
Map of Baghdad, click to view. Image courtesy of Global Security |
The Shiite militia of Moqtada al-Sadr appear in the cross hairs of the Iraqi government for the second time in three days. Following up on Friday’s raid on Sadr’s allies in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, Iraqi Security Forces conducted an operation against the Sadrain mosque in Zafaraniya district in southeastern Baghdad. Twenty suspects were arrested and six AK-47 assault rifles were seized.
The operation, like the one on Friday, was planned and executed by Iraqi forces, with U.S. forces providing perimeter security. “Elements of the 2nd National Police Division surrounded the mosque before officers with the 1st National Police Division entered the building,” reports Security Watchtower’s C.S. Scott. Also on Friday, “U.S.-led forces,” perhaps Task Force 145, arrested Adnan al-Unaybi, a “leader of the Mehdi Army militia… suspected of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and spying for Iran,.”
The Iraqi National Police are often reported as being Shiite militia dominated, however there has been extensive reorganizations and purges in the ranks over the past few months. That the police conducted this operation, and not the more diverse and respected Iraqi National Army, is an attempt by the government to show the police forces are now willing and able to address the problems of the Shiite militias. A government television campaign “[emphasizing] the role of government led forces in keeping peace in Iraq instead of militias” is also an indicator the Iraqi government is addressing the Shiite militias on a near equal basis as the Sunni led insurgency.
