US base welcome in Sadr City, snatch squad not: mayor

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi and US security forces will be allowed to set up a base in the militia bastion of Sadr City, the district's mayor said Friday, but should rein in a controversial special unit.

Sheikh Rahim al-Daraji, mayor of the large Shiite district of east Baghdad, said local leaders had held talks with US and Iraqi commanders and that a joint security station would begin operating on March 13.

"Other technical details related to Baghdad security plan have also been agreed on. A place at the entrance of the city shall be used as a first centre," he told AFP in a telephone interview on Friday.

But Daraji, who is close to radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement, said local people would not cooperate with what he called the "dirty squad", a US-led Iraqi special unit that has carried out arrests in the area .


more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070302/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestsadr_070302104530

[MADem]

1. What a brilliant idea, to set up a base smack dab in the middle of a population that wants you dead!

Wonder how well that will work out? What a mess:

Sadr himself has disappeared from public view -- US and Iraqi officials claim he has gone to Iran -- but this week he issued statements calling on the Iraqi security forces not to cooperate with the "enemy occupier".

Among the claims of his supporters in Sadr City is that a shadowy force of Iraqi commandos and US advisers has committed abuses during night-time raids.

"We have submitted more than seven reports on the violations of this unit but we got no answer. Therefore, we are not committed to cooperate with them," Darraji warned, demanding an investigation into the squad.

The US military regularly reports the results of raids in Sadr City, describing them as operations against "rogue" units of the Mahdi Army suspected of "sectarian murder, torture and kidnapping".

[papau]

2. Provide security without ability to arrest - sounds like providing easy targets n/t

n/t

[Javaman]

3. This is like that famous police station that was located in the middle of the bronx..

call fort apache, years ago.

It was the site of countless acts of violence. After years and years of decay, virtually all the surrounding buildings had become burn out shells. The new name for that precinct was "little house on the prairie".

If this base is that lucky maybe those poor soldiers in it will actually have a chance.

However, I believe it will turn into more along the lines of a modern version of Dien Bien Phu. Sort of an Apocalypse Now meets Lawrence of Arabia.