Dog Chiarelli Panting For More Blood
1st Cav general says Army will spoil cleric's plot to rebuild his force.
The fight with renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not over and the U.S. military must retake his stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a top U.S. commander said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Fort Hood-based 1st Cavalry Division, said action is necessary before the volatile cleric has a chance to rebuild his Mahdi Army, which was devastated in recent fighting.
"He's decided the best thing for him to do is to go underground and regroup," Chiarelli said. "We're not going to allow that to happen."
The Mahdi Army hasn't launched a significant attack on U.S. troops in two days, Chiarelli said. The rebel leader has not made a public appearance since the remnants of his militia departed Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine after a peace agreement last week.
U.S. military officials think thousands of al-Sadr's fighters were killed in two series of battles in Shiite cities in south-central Iraq, as well as in the streets of Sadr City in east Baghdad, a district named after the cleric's father. That fighting began in April and flared again last month.
Militiamen remain heavily armed and in control of the northern half of Sadr City, a densely populated district of small alleys filled with booby traps and hidden bombs, Chiarelli said.
Now, the general said, his division needs to re-establish control over that area before al-Sadr's forces can regroup.
The job will take a matter of weeks, Chiarelli said, giving no timetable for the start of an operation.
"Were going to go in and first make Sadr City safe for the residents. We're going to make it very, very possible for the militia to disarm," Chiarelli said. "As long as there's a militia of any kind working at counter purposes to the government, we have a problem."
If it comes to a showdown with the U.S. military in Sadr City, no ultra-sensitive Muslim holy places will get in the Army's way, Chiarelli said, harking to how sensitivities over damaging the revered Imam Ali Shrine prevented a full-bore attack on al-Sadr's militia in Najaf.
Despite a peace deal that ended three weeks of fighting in Najaf last week, many members of al-Sadr's militia are thought to have returned to Sadr City with their weapons.
Jim Krane
The Associated Press
The fight with renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not over and the U.S. military must retake his stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a top U.S. commander said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Fort Hood-based 1st Cavalry Division, said action is necessary before the volatile cleric has a chance to rebuild his Mahdi Army, which was devastated in recent fighting.
"He's decided the best thing for him to do is to go underground and regroup," Chiarelli said. "We're not going to allow that to happen."
The Mahdi Army hasn't launched a significant attack on U.S. troops in two days, Chiarelli said. The rebel leader has not made a public appearance since the remnants of his militia departed Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine after a peace agreement last week.
U.S. military officials think thousands of al-Sadr's fighters were killed in two series of battles in Shiite cities in south-central Iraq, as well as in the streets of Sadr City in east Baghdad, a district named after the cleric's father. That fighting began in April and flared again last month.
Militiamen remain heavily armed and in control of the northern half of Sadr City, a densely populated district of small alleys filled with booby traps and hidden bombs, Chiarelli said.
Now, the general said, his division needs to re-establish control over that area before al-Sadr's forces can regroup.
The job will take a matter of weeks, Chiarelli said, giving no timetable for the start of an operation.
"Were going to go in and first make Sadr City safe for the residents. We're going to make it very, very possible for the militia to disarm," Chiarelli said. "As long as there's a militia of any kind working at counter purposes to the government, we have a problem."
If it comes to a showdown with the U.S. military in Sadr City, no ultra-sensitive Muslim holy places will get in the Army's way, Chiarelli said, harking to how sensitivities over damaging the revered Imam Ali Shrine prevented a full-bore attack on al-Sadr's militia in Najaf.
Despite a peace deal that ended three weeks of fighting in Najaf last week, many members of al-Sadr's militia are thought to have returned to Sadr City with their weapons.
Jim Krane
The Associated Press
posted by R7 | 9/04/2004 10:33:00 AM
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