BAGHDAD, 1 November 2006 — Iraqi Shiites won a major political victory yesterday when Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki ordered US and Iraqi units to lift a blockade around the flash point suburb of Sadr City.
American commanders believe gunmen may be holding a kidnapped US soldier in the east Baghdad slum and since last week their troops have been maintaining a cordon of checkpoints and roadblocks around the area.
Iraqi and US forces have also launched raids inside the district, most recently yesterday morning, when they arrested three suspects.
But US forces began lifting the blockade shortly before Maliki’s 5.00 p.m. deadline, triggering a triumphant response from local youths who waved banners from racing trucks and mopeds in an impromptu victory rally.
“I know that the checkpoints down Canal Street have been removed and that this is opening up, but the other specifics of what the forces are doing right now I can’t comment on,” said US spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Garver.
Canal Street runs along the entire southern flank of Sadr City, a Shiite district home to 2.5 million people, which has effectively been sealed off by US and Iraqi forces since the ms loyal to radical leader Moqtada Sadr ordered a general strike, shutting down shops, offices and schools.
“Your patience and unity brought victory,” rejoiced a statement from Sadr’s office after the checkpoints started coming down.
Maliki said the checkpoints should be lifted by 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), but added that it could be reimposed after dark during Baghdad’s nightly curfew.
Rescuing missing soldiers is a priority for US forces, but snubbing Maliki’s command would risk reopening rifts in the Iraq-US alliance just days after a White House damage limitation exercise papered over an earlier spat.
Sadr City decided to protest after suspected Sunni insurgents managed to get into the Shiite bastion on Monday despite the American security operation to set off a bomb attack in Sadr City yesterday and arrested three suspects.
Baghdad’s bloodshed continued when a car bomb targeted Palestine Street in the heart of the city, near the busy Beirut Square, killing three civilians including a woman and wounding seven passers-by, medics said.
Later, police announced that between 30 and 40 Shiite bus passengers had been kidnapped at a false security checkpoint north of the city. And, as night fell, a car bomb ripped through a wedding party in northern Baghdad, killing 10 guests including four children, a security official said.
The capital is in the grip of a brutal turf war between rival Shiite and Sunni factions, despite a massive security operation that has put 15,000 US troops and more than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police on the streets.
There has been no let up in the challenge facing US forces either. Two American soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday, bringing the American dead to 103. With political progress toward national reconciliation achingly slow and the daily death toll showing no sign of diminishing, US President George W. Bush is facing intense domestic pressure to change course.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces have captured slain Al-Qaeda chief Abu Musa Al-Zarqawi’s personal cameraman, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Shaker said yesterday.
“We arrested him in Baquba four days ago. We found important documents and videos with him,” the spokesman said, confirming the arrest of Khalid Al-Hayani, an Iraqi militant.
