Recognizing the difference between a battle and a war
Sadr army owns city's streets
Our reporter follows the Mahdi Army as it patrols Sadr City, home to 1 in 10 Iraqi voters.
By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
SADR CITY, IRAQ - Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army rarely engages US forces anymore. Hundreds of his men were killed in clashes with the US in April and by June, the militant Shiite cleric had declared an informal truce that prevails to this day.
Despite occasional clashes, including a firefight between marines and Sadr's bodyguards on Monday outside his home in the shrine city of Najaf, senior US commanders believe their April counteroffensive decisively crushed his insurgency.
But that doesn't mean Sadr and his militia have lost influence. In recent months, the Mahdi Army has consolidated its control over Sadr City - a poor sprawl of 2.5 million on Baghdad's northeastern edge - maintained control over large portions of Najaf, forced a US-backed government council in the southern city of Amara to resign, and rearmed in anticipation of further confrontation with the US.
"We're in charge here,'' says Sheikh Amar Saadi, a preacher in Sadr City and senior Mahdi Army commander. And he goes further:
"Our mission is to clear Iraq of evil, and that's not just about defeating the Americans."
