US forces 'tiptoe' into Sadr City
Stationed on the edge of the Shiite district in Baghdad, they and their Iraqi counterparts are trying to signal that they want to help its residents.
from the April 5, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
But as Wednesday's bombing at the Joint Security Station (JSS) shows, they will face resistance from irreconcilables – elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia that will strike US forces, perhaps regardless of what Sadr himself orders – and they will be forced to confront them.
"Those that are not willing to be reconcilable, we will deal with in other ways," Odierno says. "I don't want to talk too much about that, because I don't want to talk about future operations."
In the fall of 2004, American forces were locked in a bloody fight with Sadrists within the mazes of the streets there. In concert with the implementation of the Baghdad security plan, this is the US forces' first major foray into the area since then. This time, though, the US came to the area without sparking a fight.
Nonetheless, the US may be trying to provoke pockets of militants.
On Tuesday night, some 20 Stryker vehicles – with helicopters and F-16s above – went into the northwest tip of Sadr City, an industrial area of junkyards and garages.
They were looking for a warehouse where militants were supposedly building explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), deadly bombs that the US says are being constructed in Iraq with technology from Iran. Nothing was found, and no fighters were drawn into a battle.
"Right now we are just tiptoeing around, trying to figure out exactly the composition of the enemy forces in Sadr City," says US Army Capt. Steve Phillips of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.
Odierno says that there are ways around a confrontation on the streets.
"I think ... we can avoid that, by taking care of some of the key leadership, by working with the people of the [Mahdi Army], and letting them know that we are willing to work with them and that there is a better way ahead," he says.
A factor that he says continues to hamper US success is support and interference from neighboring Iran.
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