What is going on in Iraq right now is really a mystery to me, and it appears like there is some sort of news blackout. There is little to nothing on television, and what news there is coming out of the print media is sketchy. Here is a blurb from USA Today:
Tens of thousands of Shiites took to Baghdad’s streets to protest the government crackdown on militias in Basra as heavy fighting between Iraqi security forces and gunmen erupted for a third day in the southern oil port and the capital.
Iraqi officials reported 17 more people killed in overnight clashes in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City and raised the number of deaths from fighting in the southern city of Hillah to at least 60.
Mounting anger focused on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who is personally overseeing an operation against Shiite militias dominated by followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr amid a violent power struggle in Basra, Iraq’s southern oil hub near the Iranian border.
The events threatened to unravel a Mahdi Army cease-fire and spark a dramatic escalation in violence after a monthslong period of relative calm.
Juan Cole has more, and James Joyner shows that he secretly hates America by proclaiming the mission so far is a “disaster.”
While I write this, Bush is babbling about mass graves and terrorists and claiming he has disproved the critics. It is ten am and I already feel like drinking.
If you know more, by all means throw it in the comments.
*** Update ***
I will hand it to the Pentagon PR department, this sure sounds like the fruits of our success:
raq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected, and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.
With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.
Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq’s two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.
In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.
I love the smell of thick black smoke in the morning. Smells like victory.
Couple more victories like this and we will be fighting them over here instead of over there.