Thinkprogress:
Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) launched a major combat operation in the southern city of Basra today against the Mahdi Army — which is led by anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr – and other Shiite militias.
Violence also erupted in three other Iraqi cities, including Baghdad where “[b]arrages of mortars and rockets pounded the fortified Green Zone area for the second time in three days” and rival Shiite militias exchanged gunfire in Sadr City, a Mahdi Army stronghold.
But during today’s White House press breifing, press secretary Dana Perino tried to spin the recent hostilites in Iraq as a positive development for the “surge,” saying that having the ISF conduct military operations is “what critics have wanted to see”:
PERINO: This is an Iraqi led and Iraqi initiated operation. And this is what we’ve been wanting to see the Iraqis do is take on more responsibility. […]
The surge created new opportunities and in fact created many more Iraqi Security Forces. […]
So I would characterize it as a bold decision — precisely what the critics have asked to see in Iraq, more movement by the Iraqi Security Forces.
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