Showdown with militia likely in Sadr City slum

By Mike Dorning
Chicago Tribune

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Capt. Brian O'Malley, a military spokesman, said the objective is "to flush out enemy forces" but declined to give further details.

A densely populated and long-neglected neighborhood where sewage floods many streets, Sadr City is full of the poor and disaffected Shiite young men who form the core of the cleric's following. The district is named for al-Sadr's father, a prominent ayatollah killed by assassins from Saddam Hussein's regime.

Al-Sadr has a more devoted following in the slum than in Najaf, and experts believe the number of al-Sadr supporters is far greater in the capital.

"[Al-] Sadr has never been a Najaf-based politician. His institutional power is strongest in Sadr City, where there's a mini-civil war going on. There, his forces are much more disciplined," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

U.S. soldiers say hidden explosives line virtually every major street of Sadr City, and fighters pop out from alleys to fire rocket-propelled grenades whenever U.S. forces enter.

Until two weeks ago, U.S. soldiers drove into Sadr City to supervise reconstruction of infrastructure such as electrical and water works. Since al-Sadr's insurgency re-emerged earlier this month, soldiers have gone out only in heavily armored vehicles, regularly returning with dents caused by the impact of explosives.

U.S. soldiers in Sadr City endured 82 consecutive days of fighting the last time hostilities erupted between Mahdi Army and American troops, said Lt. Col. Gary Volesky, who commands the battalion responsible for most of Sadr City.

An uneasy truce was shattered on Aug. 5, hours after militia members and U.S. forces clashed in Najaf. Since then, barrages of mortars have rained down day and night on Camp Eagle, the U.S. base on the eastern edge of Sadr City. Amid threats against them and their families, about half the members of an Iraqi National Guard battalion in Sadr City have not shown up for work since renewed fighting began.

Militants hit a U.S. helicopter on the edge of Sadr City last week, forcing the helicopter to crash-land on a fence of a mosque. As they frantically searched for the crew members, who fled the wreckage, U.S. soldiers fought off waves of attackers firing rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and mortars. The crew members were found unharmed.

Commanders said they believe al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has used the cease-fire since late June to plan and fortify its defenses in Sadr City. Several soldiers said an undercurrent of hostility was apparent in the local population.

Lt. Dave Swanson, a platoon leader, said he watched some residents reject clean water when U.S. soldiers brought tankers of it to Sadr City areas without access to drinking water. "I had a child spit on me," Swanson said. "Some children would come to get water, and adults would shoo them away. They would tell us they did not need the water."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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