SECSTATE SEZ

Since Irak is so fooked up, youse AyRabs need to helps more. Note that Iraqi forces still can't fight on their own.

British guns pound Basra
Hala Jaber and Michael Smith
The Sunday Times
April 20, 2008


IRAQI forces backed by British troops and artillery seized the main stronghold of the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern port city of Basra yesterday.

The operation, which also involved RAF and American aircraft, forced the cleric’s Mahdi army militants to cede control of a district where they had fought off an Iraqi onslaught last month.

A senior Mahdi source in Basra said British soldiers - believed to be SAS troops directing attacks - had accompanied the Iraqis as they moved into the district of Hayaniya.