Irak

[Tiger]

Die Mahdi-Armee soll sich am Rande des Zusammenbruchs befinden:
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Iraqi government claims Mahdi Army on verge of collapse
By James Cogan

An Iraqi intelligence assessment provides a chilling estimate of the slaughter of members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia during the US military and Iraqi government offensives this year into Basra, Baghdad’s Sadr City and the Marsh Arab city of Amarah. According to the Gulf News, it states that “more than 2,000 cadres from the Mahdi Army leadership were killed recently”.

The contents of the assessment were leaked to the Gulf News last week. It asserts that a further 1,300 Sadrist militiamen have fled Iraq to “safe houses in Iran”. The report assesses that the offensives have “led to the almost complete collapse” of the militia and that the operations currently underway in Amarah will see “the end of the Mahdi Army”. “The number of [militia] members doesn’t exceed 150 to 200, hugely down from the total estimated number of 50,000 in the past two years,” it stated.