U.S. and Iraqi forces wall off threats in Sadr City

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

SADR CITY, Iraq (Reuters) - Late into the night, a crane drops towering slabs of concrete into place, the earth shaking as U.S. and Iraqi forces slowly wall off the slum that was Baghdad's last sanctuary for feared Shi'ite militants.

Iraqis gather just beyond the pool of light, looking on from the darkness of the largely Shi'ite area that until several months ago lived in the grip of Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

This third wall that will encircle Sadr City, home to 2 million people in northeastern Baghdad, is part of the U.S. and Iraqi effort to solidify the sharp drop in violence that followed fierce fighting there this year.

"There is no Mehdi Army here. There is only the Iraqi Army," said Lieutenant Colonel Yahya Rasoul Abdullah, who heads an Iraqi army unit in southern Sadr City.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080810/wl_nm/iraq_security_sadrcity_dc_1;_

[Doug.Goodall]

1. If Bush can't exile them outside of Iraq, he will exile them inside their own country.

The Bush administration has determined that now is the time to open the oil spigots and cash in on his illegal war. It is necessary to crush the last resistance by simply walling it off. Too bad for the Innocent people living in the designated 'bad' area. They are but a small price to pay for the dollars going into the oil companies pockets.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Yet another walled in city in Iraq. So much "freedom".

George W. bUsh's illegal invasion of Iraq will haunt America for generations to come.