Iraq battle after militia arrest

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq battle after militia arrest


For those of you not aware, the militia here "Sons of Iraq" or "The Awakening" as they are known some places, was an American Program designed to pay insurgents to be an armed neighborhood watch instead of terrorists. So the Iraqi Army was sent to arrest the Leader of said orgainization. Now, they are is a fight between a "Local Militia" funded by the GOI and the Iraqi Army. Things that make you say hmmm...

The gun battle in the Fadil district of the city erupted shortly after the leader of the local Awakening group, Adil Mashadani, was arrested.

One account says US troops helped with the arrest alongside the Iraqi army.

Fadil was run by al-Qaeda in Iraq for most of 2006 and 2007, but they were driven out by the Awakening movement.

Baghdad security spokesman Qassim Moussawi told Reuters news agency: "Iraqi forces arrested Mashadani because they had a judicial warrant. The clashes started because of this."

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Hey soldier havn't seen you around here much lately. The article says that a reason for the arrest of Adil Mashadani has not been givin as of this point. Do you think that this is a justified arrest or is it a Shia government trumping up charges against a Sunni leader?

SgtRock said:

Hey soldier havn't seen you around here much lately. The article says that a reason for the arrest of Adil Mashadani has not been givin as of this point. Do you think that this is a justified arrest or is it a Shia government trumping up charges against a Sunni leader?

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The Iraqi Commando unit my team advises was in this fight, it was right outside the gates of the complex we where staying at at the time. Our Iraqi's suffered casualties, but no KIA Hamd' Allah. Me and a couple buddies sat on the roof and tried to figure out what was going on on the ground over some cigars, at least until the sallies in the "Mayor's Cell" went anal on us and upgraded the uniform posture if you were outside...

Rusafa District is pretty quiet and Sadr city gets all the press most of the time... and from what my terps said, the guy was corrupt as could be, but he keeps order, so he has and will continue to get away with it probably... :roll: It's funny that our terps (all LOCAL LNs) warned us about this guy while we were hanging out with our counterparts in this guys neighborhood during the elections lol... It was just common knowledge to all the locals that the guy is bad, said in passing, an off-handed remark months ago...