More than 60 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the fighting, centered on the oil hub of Basra in the south and on Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad where armed followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr hold sway.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in Basra overseeing the campaign, said fighters would be spared if they surrendered within 72 hours. Sadr’s followers rejected the ultimatum.

The assault was the largest military campaign carried out yet by Maliki’s forces without U.S. or British combat units, posing a crucial test for the Iraqi government’s ability to impose its will and allow American forces to withdraw.

“These are Iraqi decisions, they are Iraqi government forces and these are Iraqi leaders implementing and directing these decisions,” U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said in Baghdad. He said U.S. and British backing was limited to small mentoring teams and some air support.

“A year ago the Iraqi security forces would have struggled to move this force, they would not have been able to support it and it would have been difficult for the government then to take this strong action,” he told a news conference.

Washington aims to bring 20,000 of its 160,000 troops home by July after a build up of troops reduced violence dramatically last year. But violence has increased in the past few months.

Maliki’s government is under pressure to show it can maintain security on its own. U.S. Democratic candidates who hope to succeed President George W. Bush next January are calling for a speedy withdrawal from an unpopular war.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email