"Sadr City Fighters Lay Defenses Amid Latest Official Efforts at Calm"
".... As thousands of Shiites gathered for Friday Prayer, United States and Iraqi troops continued to ring Sadr City...
In recent days, United States forces have built high concrete blast walls to cordon off Sadr City’s government-controlled southern section from the rest of the sprawling district, which remains firmly under the control of the Mahdi Army militia....
During a tour of several streets in the Mahdi-controlled area on Friday, it was clear that concrete blast walls erected elsewhere in Sadr City had been moved or knocked down. Some were covered with anti-American slogans....
Sadr City is now divided into three zones: a small area under American and Iraqi government control; a much larger one under the Mahdi Army militia, where many streets are calm and businesses and grassy recreation areas were open as usual; and in between, a fluid no man’s land where much of the fighting is centered and civilians are afraid to venture.
On Friday, one such front-line area, the main Jamila market, was a charred, half-deserted stretch of shuttered stores, garbage and abandoned vegetable trolleys....
The fighting late Friday was in the American-held area; Reuters reported that 132 people had been admitted to Sadr City hospitals Friday evening.
At the Sadr Hospital in the neighborhood, a number of the patients had been injured by the fighting. A doctor had also been killed on her way to work, said Sihan Zaidan, 35, the chief nurse in the children’s ward.
Sadrist members of Parliament said that 398 people had been killed in Sadr City and 1,331 wounded, and that 91 houses had been destroyed in the past three weeks.
There was no way to verify the numbers, but there have been daily clashes in the area, and in hospital interviews it was clear that many women and children had been wounded, usually as they stood in their doorways, walked to the corner to buy bread or took a breath of fresh air on the roof.
Often it was unclear who was responsible for the shootings. While those who are Sadr supporters blamed either the Iraqi government troops or the American military, many people interviewed in a local hospital said they did not know who had shot them.
Upstairs in the children’s ward, Ali Mortada, 3, lay silently on his bed, looking at his aunt, who sat beside him. A bullet tore through his abdomen on Thursday evening as he stood with his father and uncle at the front gate of their house.
A THREE-YEAR-OLD shot in the stomach?!!!
“We heard the sound of shooting, but it did not seem so close so we thought it wasn’t very dangerous,” said Khalid Zeda, 28, the uncle.
“We have gotten so accustomed to fighting that even when a mortar hits our neighbor’s house, we don’t notice,” Mr. Zeda said. “We are unemployed, so we cannot stand to be indoors all day — it is like a prison.”
To reach the hospital, Ali’s relatives had to pass through an American checkpoint. They feared they would be shot if they drove, said Mr. Zeda, who added, “We walked a long way, holding Ali in our arms and holding him up to show him to the American soldiers so that they would let us pass.”
Mr. Zeda said he did not know where the bullet had come from, but he said, “The Americans should leave, and of course the government is involved, too.”
Everyone thinks that except AmeriKa's shit government!
Update: Because the slaughter never stops...
"12 Are Said Killed in Sadr City Clashes "
"BAGHDAD (AP) -- Twelve people died in overnight clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City district.... Iraqi troops also kept up the pressure on Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra, where they fanned out through a stronghold of the Mahdi Army.
In Sadr City's general hospital, officials said 71 people were admitted for treatment of injuries received in the fighting. The hospital also received 12 bodies, said an official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information.
The fighting came amid reports that Iraqi troops backed up by U.S. forces were trying to recapture a position in the district abandoned a day ago by a company of government soldiers.
Security forces in the area also have come under repeated attack by militants trying to prevent the construction of a concrete wall through the district.
The wall -- a concrete barrier of varying height up to about 12 feet -- is being built along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern part, where Mahdi Army fighters are concentrated.
American commanders hope that construction of the wall, which began Tuesday, will hamper their ability to fire rockets and mortars at the Green Zone, the central Baghdad district where government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
I was told earlier by the lying media that it was for "reconstruction!"
Thanks again, New York Times!! (Sigh!)
The zone has been regularly shelled since the Iraqi military launched an operation against Shiite militias in Basra on March 25. That operation quickly stalled amid fierce resistance from the militants and mass desertions from the security forces.
Militants have used mortars and rockets of various calibers in attacks on the Green Zone.
The U.S. military said one of its attack helicopters located and hit a mortar crew in Sadr City at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, killing two gunmen and destroying the weapon.
But near-daily clashes in Sadr City since then have fueled worries over a total breakdown of a truce called last year by al-Sadr, with fears of wider violence.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also kept up the pressure on al-Sadr's followers in Basra, launching an operation early Saturday aimed at clearing militants from the Hayaniyah district, a Mahdi Army stronghold in Iraq's oil capital.
British artillery and U.S. warplanes were supporting the Iraqi army operation, which met minimal resistance, military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.
He said that as a show of force British gunners fired a barrage of shells into an empty area near Hayaniyah and U.S. warplanes bombed it.
WTF?! They just unloaded and wasted ammo on empty lots?
Who are these guys -- a Mossad strike team operating in Gaza?!?!
''This was intended to demonstrate the firepower available to the Iraqi forces,'' Holloway said.
What, to show them you could mass-murder their wives, children and families?!?!
Yeah, and if they don't get the message, what is next -- a NUKE BOMB ?
Clashes were also reported near Nasiriyah, a city about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Authorities imposed a curfew on the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh after a firefight in which one militant was killed and six policemen injured.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Salahuddin province. The statement raised to at least 4,038 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the war started in March 2003 according to an Associated Press count."
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Another American dead?
The American people don't seem to give a shit, so why should I?
Otherwise, the MSM wouldn't be hiding this at the end of their article while the t.v. news has it nose up the Pope's pooper right now.
Sigh!
