Baghdad crackdown widens to Shiite area

Just after 8 am on Sunday, US and Iraqi troops tapped on Saif Mirwan’s front gate in the Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr City and politely asked to search his house.

Just after 8 am on Sunday, US and Iraqi troops tapped on Saif Mirwan’s front gate in the Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr City and politely asked to search his house. They looked in each room, asked how his family was doing, checked out the pigeons he keeps on his roof, and then left with handshakes and a thank you.

With that, Sadr City, whose fearsome reputation and political clout had rendered it largely off-limits to US and Iraqi troops for nearly three years, became an official part of the latest US-Iraqi security crackdown.

In the first daylight door-to-door weapons searches here since the crackdown began, there was none of the bloodshed that greeted American troops the last time they tried to police the district in the spring of 2004.

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But the limited raid, in the Jamila section of the sprawling slum, also raised the question of how long things will stay quiet, given the opposition to foreign troops of anti-US Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia took control of Sadr City’s streets after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Still unclear is what will happen when troops return to establish a permanent presence.

AP reports: A suicide car bomber struck a busy commercial district on Monday, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 50, police said. The attack near the Mutanabi book market in central Baghdad was the first major blast in the city in several days — sending a huge pillar of black smoke as flames spread to shops, cars and book stalls.

The death toll from police was preliminary and could rise. At least 54 people were injured. The commercial zone is mixed between Sunni- and Shi’ite-owned businesses and shoppers.

–Tina Susman