Mahdi Army

BAGHDAD -- An assault by thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers to regain control of the southern port city of Basra stalled yesterday as Shiite militiamen in the Mahdi Army fought daylong hit-and-run battles and refused to withdraw from the neighborhoods that form their base of power there. American officials have presented the Iraqi army's attempts to secure the port city as an example of its ability to carry out a major operation against the insurgency on its own. A failure there would be a serious embarrassment for the Iraqi government and for the army, as well as for American forces eager to demonstrate that the Iraqi units they have trained can fight effectively on their own. During a briefing in Baghdad yesterday, a British military official said that of the nearly 30,000 Iraqi security forces involved in the assault, almost 16,000 were Basra police forces, which have long been suspected of being infiltrated by the same militias the assault was intended to root out. The operation is a significant political test for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who traveled to Basra to oversee the beginning of the assault.

BAGHDAD -- A barrage of rockets hit Baghdad's fortified Green Zone yesterday, casting doubt on the influence of a Shiite militia cease-fire fewer than 24 hours after it was renewed. At least six blasts resonated across the U.S.-protected enclave, which is home to Iraqi government offices, the U.S. Embassy and military bases. An American official said there were no casualties and no significant damage. Along Iraq's frigid northern border, Turkish forces pressed their largest ground offensive against Kurdish separatist guerrillas in years, pounding rebel targets with artillery and helicopter gunfire.

BAGHDAD -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia yesterday to extend its cease-fire for six months, boosting hopes that a recent trend toward sharply lower Iraqi civilian and American military deaths in Baghdad would continue. His announcement, read by Sadrist clerics at mosques throughout southern and central Iraq, came precisely two years after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra that unleashed a wave of sectarian violence across Iraq. After the bombing, al-Sadr's huge militia rampaged through Sunni neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing hundreds of Sunnis every week and seizing control of three-quarters of the city.

BAGHDAD -- Persistent violence in volatile Diyala province prompted security forces to impose a daylong ban on vehicles yesterday in the provincial capital, Baqouba, as frictions grew over a U.S.-backed program to recruit Sunnis to fight the militant group al-Qaida in Iraq. Dozens of protesters took to the streets in two other Diyala towns, Muqdadiya and Buhruz, alleging that U.S. forces had detained at least two members of the local Awakening movement, the U.S.-financed citizen groups, local police officials said.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. diplomats and military officers have held talks with members of the armed movement loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a sharp reversal of previous policy and a grudging recognition that the radical Shiite cleric holds a dominant position in much of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. The secret dialogue has gone on since at least early 2006 but appeared to yield a tangible result only in the past week - a relative calm in an area of western Baghdad that has been among the capital's most dangerous regions.

BAGHDAD -- Gunmen shot and killed a prominent aide to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police said yesterday, and a car bomb killed 15 people after the driver sped past a checkpoint toward a crowded Baghdad marketplace. Police ordered the driver to stop as he drove past a roadblock in the Dakhil neighborhood on the capital's east side. Officers shot at the car before it could reach the market, triggering an explosion. "We heard gunshots from the police station and then we saw a big explosion," said Mohammed Abul Khaleq, 22, who was at a kiosk selling cell-phone accessories.

Baghdad -- Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia yesterday to halt hostilities for six months in order to restore its credibility in the eyes of Iraqis shaken by a deadly outbreak of Shiite-on-Shiite violence. The unexpected move by the anti-American cleric, coupled with a vow to cease attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, might also have been aimed at elevating his standing among his countrymen and their neighbors by demonstrating that he has the power to make peace or destroy it. "I direct the Mahdi Army to suspend all its activity for six months, until it is restructured in a way that helps honor the principles for which it was formed," al-Sadr said in a statement from his stronghold in the holy city of Najaf.

BAGHDAD -- Mortar shells killed at least 12 Iraqi civilians here, and gunmen kidnapped 15 people from a bus outside a busy downtown shopping center yesterday, as U.S. troops struggling to pacify the capital clashed with suspected insurgents. The daylight violence occurred as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with rival political factions for a fourth day in an attempt to mend sectarian rifts that have paralyzed his government. Commanders of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency complain that their success depends in part on having a functioning Iraqi leadership to reinforce security gains.

BAGHDAD -- The governor and acting police chief of a southern province were killed yesterday in a roadside bombing, raising fears of a backlash in an area that has been beset with fighting between rival Shiite factions. The attack occurred as Qadisiyah Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza and police Maj. Gen. Khalid Hassan were driving back to the provincial capital, Diwaniya, from the funeral of a prominent tribal leader, said Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Othman Ghanimi. The governor's driver and a guard were also killed in the blast, which ripped through their armored sport utility vehicle, said Ghanimi, who commands Iraqi forces in the area.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militants during a raid in the southern holy city of Karbala yesterday in which they captured a militia commander accused of orchestrating attacks on Iraqi officials and American soldiers. In political developments, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, chastised Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc for withdrawing from the Cabinet last week, saying the bloc has "shown sympathy, if not outright support to terrorist forces" including affiliates of al-Qaida.