Vol. 72/No. 15      April 14, 2008

In January 2007 the U.S. government began sending 30,000 additional troops to Iraq, bringing the total to 160,000. Over the year the U.S. military made gains on the ground, winning the cooperation of former Sunni militias in fighting al-Qaeda, substantially reducing attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government troops, and achieving a cease-fire with Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite militia.

At the beginning of March, Gen. David Petraeus, who heads U.S. troops in Iraq, said he would recommend a “period of assessment,” or a pause before further troop withdrawals, until as late as September. About 14,000 troops are to be withdrawn between now and July. Petraeus has said that after that, troop levels should be kept at about 140,000.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to say whether he favors a pause in troop withdrawals. The Associated Press reported that in a March 26 closed-door Pentagon meeting with Bush, the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed concern that the mounting strain of troop deployments could jeopardize the military’s ability to fight in other parts of the world, especially Afghanistan.

Fighting flared up the last week of March in Basra and in Sadr City between U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and the Mahdi Army, al-Sadr’s militia. Rival Shiite capitalist forces are vying for control of Basra, which controls 80 percent of Iraq’s oil resources and its only seaport.

On March 30 al-Sadr announced a cease-fire in the fighting after reaching an agreement with the Iraqi government to end round ups of his supporters and implement an amnesty to free prisoners. Iraq’s interior ministry said 210 people had been killed and 600 wounded in the fighting.

Officials in al-Sadr’s movement accuse his Shiite rivals of using the Iraqi army and police to round up Sadr supporters in order to gain an upper hand in provincial elections scheduled for October. Militias associated with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party (IDP) have been engaged in a long-running factional struggle with al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army for control of the region.

The Bush administration has pressed for the elections as one of its “benchmarks” for progress in stabilizing the country.

Al-Sadr’s bloc holds as many seats in Iraq’s national parliament as the SIIC and he provided key backing when Maliki was named prime minister. Al-Sadr boycotted elections in 2005 giving the SIIC and IDP control of most of southern Iraq.

Bush praised the Iraqi government’s assault on al-Sadr’s militia, which he claimed was done at the initiative of Maliki. U.S. warplanes dropped bombs on al-Sadr’s militia in Basra and Sadr City. U.S. troops battled militia members on the ground in Sadr City as well.

British Maj. Thomas Holloway told Agence France-Presse his troops were ready to enter the fighting in Basra if called on by the Iraqi government. London said March 18 that it would delay the withdrawal of 1,500 of its troops until the end of the year. The United Kingdom has 4,100 troops in Iraq.  
 
 
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