goverment project

Military Announces 8 U.S. Deaths in Iraq

2007-05-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Iraq's prime minister and two top American officials flew to the blistering western desert Saturday in a rare joint outing to highlight gains there in the fight against insurgents, hours before the military reported the deaths of eight U.S. troops.
One of those killed, a Marine, died in combat in Anbar province, once the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the country - and where the U.S. ambassador, the American commander in Iraq, and the Iraqi leader traveled Saturday.
Elsewhere on Saturday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in Salahuddin Province, north of Baghdad, when an explosion hit their patrol; another died in a roadside bombing in south Baghdad.
Al-Qaida in Iraq is still active in Anbar - which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi - and continues to launch devastating attacks, U.S. military officials said. On Thursday, insurgents exploded a car bomb on a passing funeral procession in Fallujah for a tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida.Despite the security accomplishments, an al-Qaida front group affiliated with insurgent Sunnis warned president bush on Saturday that the newly approved $95 billion in funds for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan would not improve Washington's chances for success.
As part of the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad, American forces raided the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City early Saturday and captured a "suspected terrorist cell leader," who helped smuggle powerful, armor-piercing bombs from Iran, the U.S. military said in statement.
After the raid, around 2 a.m., U.S. and Iraqi forces called in air strikes on nine cars positioning themselves to attack American forces, killing five suspected militants, the military said.
An Iraqi police official said the strikes hit 10 cars in line to buy gasoline, killing three civilians and wounding eight others..
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Petraeus had planned to travel Saturday to al-Qaim, an Anbar town on the Syrian border, to meet with tribal leaders and survey a $20 million border terminal under construction.
But low visibility prevented their aircraft from completing the trip, and they could only reach the al-Asad air base in Anbar. . Crocker and Petraeus, meanwhile, were briefed by local U.S. commanders.
Just a few months ago, Anbar was thought to be so strongly in the grip of al-Qaida foreign fighters and Sunni insurgents that it was believed a lost cause, the military officials said.
But al-Qaida went too far, killing several tribal leaders, and terrorizing the local population, said Maj. Gen. Walter Gaskin, commander of U.S.-led forces in Anbar.
The fed-up tribal leaders banded together against al-Qaida several months ago and began working with U.S. and Iraqi forces, he said.
During recruitment campaign for the Iraqi military and police last summer, only 34 people signed up. Al-Qaida got it even more wrong."

Memorial Day for american soilders

2007-05-26T17:46:00.000-07:00

Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year again the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year.
U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus on Saturday acknowledged the increase in casualties as a result of the American surge in forces to regain control of Baghdad.
We're doing heavy fighting. There's a war on out there," he told reporters at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq.
Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst with the and a consultant to the bipartishim said the increased casualties were a result of the security operation.
Thousands more American soldiers are patrolling the streets and living in isolated outposts across Baghdad, leaving them more vulnerable to attack.
Stephen Biddle, a military expert at the Council on foreign relationship and a member of a group that spent weeks in Iraq assessing the situation for Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, agreed that more American deaths were likely.
"The biggest change in their (insurgent and militia) tactics is that they've changed to exploit the vulnerabilities we've opened ourselves up to. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,817 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military.

Terror Attacks!!!!

2007-04-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the middle east protably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said.
In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department said 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,185 more than in 2005 representing a 28.5 percent increase.
These strikes claimed a total of 20,498 lives, 13,340 of them in Iraq, 5,800 more, or a 40.2 percent increase, than last year, it said.
Despite the grim figures, State Department officials pointed to some successes in the war on terror, including improved counterterrorism cooperation with various nations and the thwarting of numerous plots notably plans to down trans-Atlantic airliners.
"Serious challenges do remain, there's no question about that," said acting counterterrorism coordinatorfrank uranbcic . "This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy's back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory."
In Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, seen for the first time in a Nov. 23, 2006, attack in sadr city also "signaled a dangerous strategic shift in tactics," it said.
With the rise in fatalities, the number of injuries from terrorist attacks also rose, by 54 percent, between 2005 and 2006, and the number of wounded doubled in Iraq over the period, according to the department'scountry reports on Terrorism 2006.
The numbers were compiled by the national counterterrorism and refer to deaths and injuries sustained by "noncombatants," with significant increases in attacks targeting children, educators and journalists.
Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday.
Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, notably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said.
In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department said 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,185 more than in 2005 representing a 28.5 percent increase.
These strikes claimed a total of 20,498 lives, 13,340 of them in Iraq, 5,800 more, or a 40.2 percent increase, than last year, it said.
Despite the grim figures, State Department officials pointed to some successes in the war on terror, including improved counterterrorism cooperation with various nations and the thwarting of numerous plots notably plans to down trans-Atlantic airliners.
"Serious challenges do remain, there's no question about that," said acting counterterrorism coordinator Frank Urbancic. "This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy's back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory."
In Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, seen for the first time in a Nov. 23, 2006, attack in Sadr City, also "signaled a dangerous strategic shift in tactics," it said.
With the rise in fatalities, the number of injuries from terrorist attacks also rose, by 54 percent, between 2005 and 2006, and the number of wounded doubled in Iraq over the period, according to the department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2006.
The numbers were compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center and refer to deaths and injuries sustained by "noncombatants," with significant increases in attacks targeting children, educators and journalists.
"By far the largest number of reported terrorist incidents occurred in the Near East and South Asia," said the 335-page report, referring to the regions where Iraq and Afghanistan are located.
"These two regions also were the locations for 90 percent of all the 290 high-casualty attacks that killed 10 or more people," it said.

NATO launches offensive against Taliban

2007-04-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

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More than 3,000 NATO and Afghan troops are participating in the operation, the latest effort to bring Helmand province under the control of President Hamid Karzai.
A long column of armored vehicles brought several hundred British soldiers to the Sangin Valley, near the town of Gereshk and Afghanistan's strategic ring road that links the cities of Kandahar and Herat.
"It is all part of a longer-term plan to restore the whole of Helmand to government control," said Lt. Col. Stuart Carver, a British commander. "You have to do it a piece at a time."
The British soldiers came under attack from mortar rounds and machine-gun fire after they fanned out to patrol on foot.
An Associated Press reporter traveling with the troops heard officers ordering British artillery units to respond. Three Apache helicopters flew overhead but didn't immediately open fire. There were no reports of casualties.
The operation will not touch Helmand's poppy fields, which supply much of the world's opium and its more potent derivative, heroin. That could antagonize the 2 million farmers whose livelihoods depend on growing poppy, something the alliance wishes to avoid.
In western Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces battled with Taliban insurgents over three days, leaving at least 136 suspected militants dead, a coalition statement said Monday.
The clashes in Herat province were the deadliest reported in Afghanistan since January and provoked angry protests by hundreds of villagers Monday, chanting "Death to America!"
Acting on intelligence about Taliban activity in Herat's Zerkoh Valley, coalition and Afghan forces attacked the insurgents and called in an airstrike, destroying seven Taliban positions and killing 87 fighters during a 14-hour engagement on Sunday, the statement said.
Another 49 Taliban were killed two days earlier by a combination of gunfire and an airstrike, it said, adding that a U.S. soldier also was killed in the engagement.
The coalition statement said there were no reports of civilians wounded in the two battles. It was not immediately possible to confirm the casualty figures independently.
On Monday, hundreds gathered in front of the police station and government headquarters in Shindand district where Zerkoh Valley is located, said district police chief Gen. Gul Aqa.
Aqa confirmed that the attack had killed "a large number of people" but did not have figure for the number of dead. Contrary to coalition claims, Aqa said the Afghan police and army were not involved in the clashes.
"The Americans carried out an independent operation in the Zerkoh," he said, adding that protesters were demanding to know why Americans did not inform Afghan forces beforehand.
Recent weeks have seen an surge in violence in Afghanistan after a winter lull, with Taliban-led militants stepping up attacks, and coalition and NATO forces launching a series of offensives against around the country.
The clashes in Herat appear to be the deadliest in the once-stable west of the country since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Most of the fighting has been concentrated in the volatile south and east.
The fighting is also the deadliest reported nationwide since January, when NATO said that about 150 suspected Taliban crossing from Pakistan were killed by an airstrike and ground fire in eastern Paktika province.

Car bomb kills 9 U.S. troops in Iraq

2007-04-24T06:15:00.000-07:00

Car bomb kills 9 U.S. troops in Iraq
By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web statement Tuesday claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed nine U.S. paratroopers and wounded 20 in the worst attack on American ground forces in Iraq in more than a year.
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militants that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, said it was behind Monday's attack on a U.S. patrol base in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad — an area that has seen a spike in violence since American troops surged into the capital to halt violence there.
The victims were all members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, said a spokesman for the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based unit. It was the highest number of casualties for the division since the war began, Maj. Tom Earnhardt said.
Meanwhile, police in the same area said gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers killed six Iraqis and burned five homes Tuesday in an unrelated attack. South of the capital, a family of seven was killed en masse — shot to death in their beds at dawn by masked gunmen, neighbors and police said.
British forces transferred another military base to Iraqi troops in the country's south, ahead of the planned withdrawal this summer of about half of Britain's contribution to the U.S.-led coalition here.
And in Baghdad, two bombs went off outside the Iranian Embassy on Tuesday for the second consecutive day. Six civilians were injured, police said. Tension has risen over allegations by the U.S. and some Sunni politicians in Iraq about alleged Iranian interference in the country.
A suicide car bomber rammed into an American patrol base in Diyala on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20, the military said. All were members of the 82nd Airborne's 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, the military said. Fifteen of the 20 were treated and later returned to duty, while five others and an Iraqi civilian were evacuated to a medical facility, it said.
In its Web posting Tuesday, the Islamic State of Iraq put the number of Americans killed at 30.
"Almighty God has guided the soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq to new methods of explosions," it said without elaborating. The message appeared on a Web site that frequently airs communications from militants, but its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
It was single deadliest attack on ground forces since Dec. 1, 2005, when a roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 on a foot patrol near Fallujah.
Twelve soldiers died when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Diyala on Jan. 20. The military said it might have been shot down but the investigation is still ongoing.
In other devastating attacks, 14 Marines were killed when a roadside bomb struck an amphibious assault vehicle near the western town of Haditha on Aug. 3, 2005. And a suicide bomber struck a mess tent in a base near Mosul on Dec. 21, 2004, killing 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers and three American contractors.
It was the second bold attack against a U.S. base north of Baghdad in just over two months and was notable for its use of a suicide car bomber. Militants have mostly used hit-and-run ambushes, roadside bombs or mortars on U.S. troops and stayed away from direct assaults on fortified military compounds to avoid U.S. firepower.
On Feb. 19, insurgents struck a U.S. combat post in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding 17 in what the military called a "coordinated attack." It began with a suicide car bombing followed by gunfire on soldiers pinned down in a former Iraqi police station where fuel storage tanks were set ablaze by the blast.
American troops are facing increasing danger as they step up their presence in outposts and police stations in Baghdad and areas surrounding the city, as part of the security crackdown to which President Bush has committed an extra 30,000 troops.
Sunni militants are believed to have withdrawn to surrounding areas such as Diyala where they have safe haven. The U.S. command also deployed an extra 700 soldiers to the province last month.
Another U.S. soldier was also killed Monday in a roadside bombing in Diyala, the military said — bringing the daily American death toll to 10. A British soldier was also shot to death while on patrol in the southern city of Basra, officials said.
The deaths raised to 85 the number of U.S. service members who died have in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for American troops since December, when 112 died.
On Tuesday, gunmen stormed a house south of Baghdad at dawn, going room to room and killing seven relatives while they were still in their beds, police and neighbors said.
Neighbors said they could not recognize the assailants, who wore masks and drove into town in three pickup trucks. The whole incident lasted just a few minutes, police said, with the gunmen methodically moving room to room and pumping bullets into the residents while they slept.
All seven victims were from the same family: a mother and father, their son and four teenage grandchildren, police said. The attack occurred in the mostly Shiite village of Jaara, less than 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Hours later, gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers raided a remote village near the city of Baqouba, killing six people, wounding 15, and burning five homes, police said.
The attack by about 70 gunmen riding in Iraqi army Humvees took place in the same province where the nine U.S. troops died a day earlier.
A brief transfer ceremony was held in Basra on Tuesday at the Shaibah logistics base, once the main center of British military operations in Iraq. Iraq's national army planned to use the facility for training.
Two other British bases — al-Saie and Shatt al-Arab — were turned over to Iraqi forces in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, in the past month.
The bulk of Britain's about 7,500 soldiers in the city will now operate from a base at Basra's main airport.
Two car bombs exploded within minutes of each other Tuesday in a public parking lot about 150 yards from the front of the Iranian Embassy, wounding six civilians but causing no damage to the building, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own security.
On Monday, two parked car bombs exploded outside the embassy. One bomb exploded near the same public parking lot, killing one civilian and wounding another; the other parked car bomb exploded close to a police patrol near the embassy, killing one civilian and wounding two officers, police said.
On its Web site, the prominent Iraqi Sunni insurgent group Islamic Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing near the parking lot.
Also Tuesday:
• Four bullet-riddled bodies were delivered to the morgue in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, said morgue official Mamoun Ajeel al-Rubaie. Three had been decapitated, he said.
• A bomb hidden in a bag exploded on a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing four passengers and wounding eight, police said.

Election of 2005 in the iraq

2007-03-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

An Iraqi Army unit prepares to board a Task Force Baghdad UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter for a counterinsurgency mission in Baghdad.
On jan 31, an election for a government to draft a permanent constitution took place. Although some violence and lack of widespread Sunni Arab participation marred the event, most of the eligible Kurd and Shia populace participated. February, March and April proved to be relatively peaceful months compared to the carnage of November and January, with insurgent attacks averaging 30 a day from the prior average of 70.. Suicide bombers, believed to be mainly disheartened Iraqi Sunni Arabs, Syrians and Saudis, tore through Iraq. Fighters armed with flak jacket(unseen in the insurgency before this time) and using sophisticated tactics met the Marines, eventually inflicting 31 U.S. casualties by the operation's end, and suffering 125 casualties themselves. The Marines were unable to recapture the region due to their limited numbers and the continual insurgent IED attacks and ambushes. The operation continued all the way to the Syrian border, where they were forced to stop (Syrian residents living near the border heard the American bombs very clearly during the operation.

Saddam captured how was it?

2007-03-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

In the wave of intelligence information fueling the raids on remaining Ba'ath Party members connected to insurgency, Saddam Hussein himself was captured on dec 31 on a farm near Tikrit in operation red dawn. The operation was conducted by the U.S. armys and members of task force 21With the capture of Saddam and a drop in the number of insurgent attacks, some concluded the multinational forces were prevailing in the fight against the insurgency. With the weather growing cooler, Coalition forces were able to operate in full armor which reduced their casualty rate. The provisional government began training the New Iraqi Security forces intended to defend the country, and the United States promised over $20 billion in reconstruction money in the form of credit against Iraq's future oil revenues. Of this, less than half a billion dollars had been spent in 10 months after it had been promised Oil revenues were also used for rebuilding schools and for work on the electrical and refining infrastructure.
Shortly after the capture of Saddam, elements left out. Most prominent among these was the shia . The Coalition Provisional Authority opposed allowing democratic elections at this time, preferring instead to eventually hand-over power to the Due to the internal fight for power in the new Iraqi government more insurgents stepped up their activities. The two most turbulent centers were the area around Fallujah and the poor Shia sections of cities from Baghdad to Basra in the south.

Bush Seeks $3.2B for Extra Iraq Forces, god why?

2007-03-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

President Bush asked Congress on Saturday for $3.2 billion to pay for at least 4,000 extra combat support troops and military police forces that commanders told the president they need in Iraq.
The extra troops are in addition to the 21,500-troop buildup Bush announced in January. The budget revisions come as many lawmakers opposed to the buildup are debating funding for the war.
Bush is proposing to cancel $3.2 billion in low-priority defense items within his fiscal 2007 supplemental budget request to offset the need for these extra forces.
Cutting the programs, he said, would not require increasing the overall $93.4 billion in additional defense money he's already requested to finance this year's war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This revised request would better align resources based on the assessment of military commanders to achieve the goal of establishing Iraq and Afghanistan as democratic and secure nations that are free of terrorism," Bush wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Bush signed the letter on his flight Friday from Brazil to Uruguay, part of his five-nation tour of Latin America, that continues on Sunday in Colombia. The White House released the letter Saturday in Montevideo, Uruguay.
At a news conference Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus, who arrived in Baghdad in February as the top U.S. commander, hinted of the need to bolster the U.S. troop force.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the national security council said the money would cover funding for 2,000 more combat support troops and 2,000 to 2,400 military police forces.
"Gen. Petraeus expects under the Baghdad security plan as well as other parts of Iraq, that the number of people going into detention will increase and so these military police forces will be for that," Johndroe said.

Iraqi Government fighting violence

2007-03-09T06:15:00.001-08:00

Iraq's governmental leaders are rising to confront "an array of complicated issues" amid a spike in insurgent violence, a senior U.S. military officer said Oct. 19. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently announced the formation of a special committee to address the country's illegal militia issue, Caldwell said.
The Iraqi Government, he added, is also seeking to reform its Security Ministries. In fact, the Iraqi Government reassigned a number of leaders of the National Police on Oct. 16.
"Although the leadership at the division level has changed, the National Police continued to prove itself as a capable, and viable civil force," Caldwell said.
Caldwell commended the Iraqi Military and Police efforts in combating the insurgency. The Iraqi Security Force is finding "a good number" of weapons caches throughout Iraq. That's because Iraqi forces are knowledgeable about their areas of operation, Caldwell said, and are growing in size and professionalism.
Caldwell cited a recent joint Iraqi and U.S. Marine operation in Anbar province resulting in the detention of more than 35 suspected insurgents and the discovery of thousands of hidden weapons.
More than 312,000 Iraqi Soldiers and Police have been trained and equipped by the Coalition Force.
Caldwell pointed to the Iraqi government's recruiting plan to bring more than 30,000 new Iraqi troops to serve in troublesome Anbar province by May. In February, 3,800 Iraqi Police worked out of 14 active Iraqi Police stations in three of the nine districts in Anbar province, Caldwell said. Today, there are 33 police stations operating in eight districts, he noted, with more than 8,000 trained Iraqi Police.
Caldwell acknowledged there's been an increase in insurgent violence since the start of Ramadan in late September That goal "is achievable," Caldwell emphasized, "with a combination of both tough security measures by coalition and Iraqi Security Forces and a political process that recognizes that 11 to 12 million Iraqis voted for a unity government."

war and violence

2007-03-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

During a time when our country has suffered immensely because of direct attacks that were purposely orchestrated to destroy a majority of U.S. lives, we as citizens look desperately to other citizens for security. Two examples of these direct attacks would be the Japanese invasion against the U.S. and the terrorist act that occurred on September 11th 2001. Shortly after, the presidents who were in office during the time of this harmful assault, both Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Bush, delivered speeches that uniformly shaped the thoughts of the victims, the U.S. citizens. This use of propaganda, frequently used when the nation is in an uproar because of hardships brought against them, is a public attempt to aim everyone's aggression in one direction. My belief is that in Roosevelt's speech he was trying to stir up anger in the American people against their Japanese offenders. His main purpose was to raise emotions of hatred.
The purpose of Bush's address after the September 11th attack was to acknowledge that the country was indeed under serious attack and not to underestimate the strength of the American people. For all the emotional stress that we had endured due to the cause of the event, is given proof of that notion. From further reading his speech I was able to conclude that Bush was surprised at the amount of control that the people seemed to have at the time of this traumatizing incident. Blood drives were initiated and people aided in saving the lives of others instead on thinking solely of themselves. This dedication expressed between citizens, shows the commitment that we have both to this country and to the individuals who reside in it.
The use of propaganda to form the opinions of the nation is only useful when the citizens are the most vulnerable. However, if there are numerous people who choose not to conform to the intended ideas, then the attempts of the national leader will be unsuccessful. .

Privacy Board Clears U.S. Spy Programs

2007-03-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

A white house privacy board is giving its stamp of approval to two of the Bush administration's controversial surveillance programs - electronic eavesdropping and financial tracking - and says they do not violate citizens' civil liberties.
The report finds that both the national security 's warrant less eavesdropping program and the Treasury Department's monitoring of international banking transactions have sufficient privacy protections, three board members told The Associated Press in telephone interviews.
Lanny Davis, a former white house counsel and the lone Democrat on the panel, described the board's first report to Congress as modest.
The board's initial findings come as Congress is moving forward on measures to give the board more authority and make it more independent of the president. Both conservative and liberal civil liberties groups have urged the members to aggressively review the eavesdropping program and have questioned whether board members would stand up to the president if he were flouting the law.
"It is critical that Congress make the civil liberties board independent of the executive branch."
The privacy board members declined to comment on the proposed legislation. But Bush appointed Dinkins, a Republican, to chair the board.
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WAR AND VIOLENCE

2007-03-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber turned a venerable book market into a deadly inferno and gunmen targeted Shiite pilgrims Monday as suspected Sunni insurgents brought major bloodshed back into the lap of their main Shiite rivals. At least 38 people died in the blast and seven pilgrims were killed. The Shiite Mahdi Army militia has so far resisted full-scale retaliation through a combination of self-interest and intense government pressure. An expected Cabinet reshuffle could take a serious bite out of al-Sadr's voice in government - a move strongly encouraged by Washington. Al-Sadr also opened the door for U.S. and Iraqi troops to enter the Mahdi stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad - under a painstaking deal with authorities - but his loyalists are still being hunted outside the capital. "Al-Sadr and his forces could be feeling under siege," said aliza chief researcher at the London-based Center for Arab-Iranian Studies. The suicide mission tore through booksellers and other stores on narrow Mutabi road , a mostly Shiite-run commercial area in Baghdad's historical heart along the Tigris River. That's mostly because al-Sadr ordered his fighters to pull back after coming under strong government arm-twisting to allow the security plan to proceed.
The troops plan to establish outposts in Sadr City that will bring together Iraqi police, military and U.S.-led forces, said U.S. Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff, who oversees training of Iraqi soldiers.

Al-Sadr also opened the door for U.S. and Iraqi troops to enter the Mahdi stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad - under a painstaking deal with authorities - but his loyalists are still being hunted outside the capital. A worker at a nearby shoe store, yussof haider , 24, said the blast flipped burning cars with charred bodies trapped inside.
In other violence, gunmen opened fire on Shiite pilgrims in several places around Baghdad, killing at least seven people, police said. Attacks on soldiers in some Shiite districts are also down sharply.Al-Sadr's followers also warned they would fight any Cabinet changes that would single them out.
"We will not give up our share and any of our ministerial posts under any circumstances unless all other blocs are subjected to the same procedure," said saleh al ukali, head of Sadrist faction in parliament, where the bloc controls 30 of the 275 seats.
An adviser to said 10 of the 39 ministry posts soon would be replaced - including five of the six ministers loyal to al-Sadr.Relations between al-Sadr and the government are already tense. Late last year, the prime minister withdrew his official protection for al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army and allowed U.S.-led forces to close in. Al-Sadr also opened the door for U.S. and Iraqi troops to enter the Mahdi stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad - under a painstaking deal with authorities - but his loyalists are still being hunted outside the capital.
In other violence, gunmen opened fire on Shiite pilgrims in several places around Baghdad, killing at least seven people, police said.
Al-Sadr's followers also warned they would fight any Cabinet changes that would single them out.
An adviser to Nouri al-maliki said 10 of the 39 ministry posts soon would be replaced - including five of the six ministers loyal to al-Sadr. The adviser Relations between al-Sadr and the government are already tense.
The violence - after a relative three-day lull in Baghdad - was seen as another salvo in the Sunni extremist campaign to provoke a sectarian civil war that could tear apart the Shiite-led government and erase Washington's plans for Iraq.