Caught in the Middle

by Siun [courtesy of Firedoglake]

While reports so far today point to a ceasefire in Sadr City, Saturday night brought no relief to the residents as US forces continued a heavy bombardment of this community of over 2 million people. The independent Voices of Iraq at Aswat Al Iraq reported at 9:44PM Baghdad time:

Three large parts of Sadr city were subjected to heavy bombardment that was continuously carried out by U.S. helicopters, starting from Saturday 3:30 p.m. until now, despite the Iraqi government and representatives of the Sadr movement having signed an agreement to stop confrontations in the city.

The Irish Sun reported the bombings continued until this morning and hospitals in Sadr City counted 40 more casualties in the last 24 hours – 15 bodies and 25 wounded.

Badger has identified the real story of this “cease fire”:

[Sadrist spokesman] Obeidi said the agreement allows only Iraqi forces to conduct raids in Sadr City, not the U.S. military. But Dabbagh told The [LA] Times that the deal did not address the role of foreign troops, a point underscored by Hadi Amri, a member of the ruling alliance's negotiating team.

"There is no point that prevents the Americans from performing military operations in Sadr City," Amri said. "The U.S. forces are and will continue bombing . . . the places that are launching mortar rounds or rockets at their bases and/or the Green Zone."

Meanwhile, US media is playing this all up as “US military hopes for diplomatic solution” (getting in a few bombing runs in the last minutes before a cease fire is surely the height of diplomacy)

One reason for the sudden interest in a “cease fire” in Sadr City seems to be the launching of what Maliki’s Green Zone government has called a “massive” force in Mosul. This is the new campaign which Maliki has been touting for over three months – and which the Red Crescent warned could lead to a significant increase in internally displaced persons since the US command is expected to use the Kurdish Peshmerga militia in the vanguard of the attack. The Peshmerga have been used in Baghdad as well and were seen as particularly brutal - and there is suspicion that they will use this opportunity to try to “cleanse” Mosul of non-Kurdish residents.

Already reports of civilian casualties are appearing – today the US forces admitted killing a woman and child who, they claimed "were in a car with gunmen."

The best briefing on conditions in Mosul as this new offensive ramps up is at GorillasGuides and provided by team members inside Mosul. You can read it here.

One Sadrist member of the Iraqi parliament summed up conditions in Iraq:

The Sadrists say their principle objective remains a sovereign Iraq that is free from the "vicious circle" they say has made their country the battlefield in the American war on terror. "The Americans are here fighting Al Qaeda and terrorism and to make America more secure, while Al Qaeda is here to fight the infidels," says Liqaa al-Yaseen, a member of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc. "The result is terror for the Iraqi people caught in the middle of this war."

As the US congress prepares a new supplemental blank check this week, let's make sure they are reminded of the Iraqi people, caught in the middle of this war.

(House Switchboard: 202-225-3121/Senate switchboard:202-224-3121).

Video - raw footage shot by Steve Bent, a British photographer covering Iraq. His work can be seen here and in the Times of London: Baghdad Cab Ride from Hell.