U.S. troops sweep into Sadr City

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hundreds of U.S. troops flooded Sadr City on Sunday in the first major policing sweep of the sprawling Shiite slum in East Baghdad controlled by Shiite militia.

The troops went door to door with Iraqi national police and Iraqi soldiers to clear resistance to a permanent joint presence in Sadr City that is part of the ongoing Baghdad Security Plan, the U.S. military said.

"So far things are going fairly smoothly," said Capt. Curtis Kellogg of Multi National Division-Baghdad. "There haven't been any reports of any large scale resistance. We're setting the conditions so we can begin to establish a permanent presence."

Since the plan began about one month ago Sunni residents and politicians have accused the government of targeting Sunni areas and leaving Shiite militias, who've been accused of Sunni killings, unchecked. The operation on the west side of Sadr City, which is controlled by renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and blamed for much of the sectarian killing, may be a sign that the tide is turning. Some key arrests of high-level Sadr aides have also occurred in the last month.

So far about 15 Joint Security Stations have been established in Baghdad, Kellogg said. The stations are permanent operation centers for Iraqi and U.S. security forces. The hope is that residents will turn to them for protection rather than to neighborhood gangs and militias.

More than 600 U.S. soldiers are participating from the 82nd Airborne Division and two Stryker companies from the 2nd Infantry Division. With them are 550 members of the Iraqi army and national police.

The operation, which began early Sunday morning, continued into the night and was expected to last for days. No arrests or casualties were reported. "Nobody was hurt, there was no violence and no injuries to Iraqis," said Lt. Col. Scott R. Bleichwehl, Multi National Division-Baghdad spokesman. "Early indications are very good."

Weeks of negotiations with Mayor Raheem al-Darraji of Sadr City preceded the operation, Bleichwehl said.

The Mahdi Army has been operating under strict orders to remain low profile, Sadr loyalists have told McClatchy. Many top Mahdi Army commanders and Sadr aides have fled to Iran and Lebanon and the U.S. military has said that al-Sadr is in Iran.

Hassan Zarkani, foreign relations representative for al-Sadr in Beirut, Lebanon, called the operations pointless U.S. meddling.

"We hope there is a day when Iraqis are the master and not under the American shoes," Zarkani said in a phone interview. "Any security procedure that can end the Iraqi-on-Iraqi fight in any part of Baghdad we welcome that. But Sadr City has not witnessed internal fighting."

Al-Darraji called the operation a "natural" progression of the Baghdad Security Plan and said it was being conducted in "a very good way." He said that under a deal he'd reached with the U.S. military, the security station would open Mar. 13.