Clashes continue in Sadr City despite ceasefire; Maliki: Crackdown on Shiite militias shows he is not sectarian; Iran shells Kurdish positions in Northern Iraq
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  • Clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the Shiite militias on May 18, casting doubts on the strength of the ceasefire reached with the militias in the previous week. Attacks on US troops and Iraqi forces occurred in the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire also. 11 people were killed on May 13, a day after the ceasefire came into existence1. Militants also fired a surface-to-air missile on an American Apache helicopter flying over Sadr City on May 13, in the first such instance since fighting erupted in March. Reports noted that the wall/barrier that the US military was building in Sadr City to prevent insurgent attacks, 80 per cent of which was complete, was especially being targeted2.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has meanwhile asserted that the crackdown on Shiite militias in Sadr City and in Basra is proof of the fact that he was not following a sectarian agenda3. Reports also noted that the operation in Basra, launched on March 24, was showing signs of progress with most of the city having stabilised4. Over 33,000 Iraqi security forces were operating in the city which provided nearly 40 per cent of the country’s oil revenues. Maliki later in the week also offered amnesty and cash to Sunni insurgents in the northern city of Mosul to lay down their arms. He had made a similar offer to the Basra insurgents before the start of the military offensive5.

    In other developments, Iran shelled Kurdish positions in norther nIraq’s Kurdish Autonomous Region, targeting the rebels of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). The PJAK was engaged in an armed struggle for autonomy and rights for the Kurdish minorities in Iran and Turkey6.

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