Some news from Iraq where the situation is so chaotic now that it is hard to put this in one narrative.
The Associated Press detects differences between U.S. and Iraqi strategies towards al-Sadr. But while the U.S. may use softer words than Maliki, facts on the ground tell a different story.
Fighting continues in Basra and Sadr-City with the U.S. firing missiles from helicopters and drones killing ‘criminals’. (When will that tactic migrate to fight ‘criminals’ in the homeland?)
A company of the Iraqi army sent as cannon fooder in front of U.S. lines in Sadr city simply packed up and left.
Maliki sacked Basra’s army and police commanders who both had been appointed in June by his central government.
Yesterday’s bombings in Baquba, Ramadi and Mosul by the Iraqi resitance seem to have been aimed at police and awakening forces, but also killed and wounded many civilians.
Turkey again bombed PKK positions in the Zagros mountains in north Iraq.
Sadr’s movement is the biggest humanitarian aid agency in Iraq.
Two aids of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani were seriously wounded in seperate assassination attempts and another one escaped unharmed.
The State Department threatens to order its diplomats onto Iraq positions where the new imperial embassy building is now ready to recieve them.
Maliki is in Brussels working on deal to sell Iraqi gas to the European Union. Certainly the most important thing for him to do right now.
ADDED:
Badger reports how Maliki and the U.S. by creating ‘awakening councils’ in Sadr city try to instigate another civil war.