The Pointless Battle

The Guardian has a great article today which discusses the views of residents in Sadr City, a Baghdad slum with 2 million Shia and, obviously, the heavy influence of Moqtada al-Sadr. It doesn't display any great love for the Americans or al-Sadr.

"This is a pointless battle," he [Riyadh Aabid] said. "The Mahdi army attacks the Americans from inside the houses. And then the Americans attack the houses. But it's innocent civilians that get killed. Both sides claim they are right. But both are wrong." ...

The US military claimed it had killed 50 Sadr fighters in overnight fighting. According to Mr Aabid, however, most of the victims were ordinary people like him. Nobody knew how many had died.

"My two children couldn't sleep. I held both of them in my arms all night. They were trembling. The American bombs were so loud," he said. "Our message to the Americans is 'stop shooting into houses. Unarmed people live there'."

But Mr Aabid and other Sadr City residents said they were as fed up with the Mahdi army, whose hit-and-run tactics invariably lead to a disproportionate US response.

"We hated Saddam. But in the Saddam era we didn't have bullets being fired into our shops. The only gunfire was at wedding parties," he said.