The US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, Jr., has confirmed that militia leaders are leaving Baghdad as quickly as possible ahead of the deployment of additional forces.
Shiite militia leaders already appear to be leaving their strongholds in Baghdad in anticipation of the U.S. and Iraqi plan to increase the troop presence in the Iraqi capital, according to the top U.S. commander in the country.
"We have seen numerous indications Shia militia leaders will leave, or already have left, Sadr City to avoid capture by Iraqi and coalition security forces," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said in a written statement submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of his confirmation hearing today to be Army chief of staff.
Casey, who has been the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq since summer 2004, also stated that as part of the campaign to improve security in Baghdad, he expects that U.S. troops will be stationed in Sadr City with Iraqi army and national police units. U.S. plans call for five combat brigades, or about 17,500 troops, to move into Baghdad over the next four months and help occupy about 35 outposts across the city.
Sadr City is the huge slum on the east side of Baghdad that has about 2.5 million inhabitants and also is the home of the Mahdi Army, the most powerful militia in Iraq. The Mahdi Army is largely controlled by Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who is sharply anti-American.
Now if the media really wanted to help right now, they could be helping to point out that the leaders are rabbiting while leaving their troops to face the wrath of the US and Iraqi forces on their own. We have seen this exact same behavior in Somalia recently. There is a lot of boastful swaggering from the jihadis right up until the time someone pushes them. Then they fall over or run like hell. Oh, excuse me, they walk briskly over the horizon, because they have vowed never to run from their enemies. Mahdi Army leaders have vowed to teach those amateurs in Somalia how it is really done. They are attempting a Mach 2 brisk walk for the border.
