Bush's planned escalation in Iraq will be all about suppressing the opposition to the new regime . . .WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq -
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Sadr City could prove the toughest nut to crack as the Bush administration appears ready to send thousands more soldiers to the capital to have a fresh run at pacifying the capital, where insurgent and militia violence has raged for months.
Iraqi government officials have said their troops, which are preparing to take on Sunni neighborhoods, will largely leave Sadr City to American forces and the Iraqi army's Special Operations Command division.
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The largest Baghdad enclave of Iraq's Shiite majority, Sadr City is the base for the Mahdi Army, a militia led by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Under pressure from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in October, U.S. soldiers took down barbed-wire barricades that controlled traffic in and out of the area. Since then, they have ventured in only sparingly.
But so many mortar and rocket attacks have been launched from the outskirts of Sadr City in recent weeks that U.S. commanders decided to raid homes nearby, searching for weapons.
Many soldiers wondered whether what they were looking for was worth the risk . . .
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Bush's Latest Plan To Perpetuate His Bloody Iraq Failure
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