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U.S. Deploys a Purpose-Driven Distinction
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There was Jawad Kazim al-Tulaybani, a rocket and mortar specialist who carried out a rocket attack on a U.S. outpost last month that left 15 soldiers wounded, U.S. officials said. A veteran of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Tulaybani is said to walk with a limp caused by a leg injury.
And there was Ismail Hafiz al-Atawi, known as Abu Dure, feared throughout the capital for sectarian attacks on Sunnis.
"All those great military leaders are under the command of Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr," said a senior aide to Sadr, using an honorific for the cleric and speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. "They will continue fighting for Sayyid Moqtada until the last American is driven out of our country."
Sadr's followers are supposed to be observing the cease-fire he imposed last year, which the U.S. command has said is still in effect. But that's not the way it has seemed to soldiers in Sadr City. "I don't think there's a cease-fire," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the 1st Squadron of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, the unit responsible for southeastern Sadr City.
Some of the statements from Sadr are so vague it is hard to tell whether they condone violence against U.S. troops or not. In interviews, Mahdi Army commanders said the cease-fire allows them to fight Americans in Sadr City as a form of self-defense. Under those conditions, Barnett said, the U.S. military's official distinction between special groups and the mainstream Mahdi Army has been maddening. "You can't really compartmentalize," said Barnett, of Willard, Ohio. "What are the special groups? You just don't know if it's a covert JAM organization or a separate organization."
Sitting in the back of his Stryker armored vehicle on a recent afternoon, Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Arambula compared what he had seen during a month and a half of sharp clashes in Sadr City with what he saw in Najaf in 2004, when U.S. and Mahdi Army forces engaged in ferocious fighting.
"It's the same guys," said Arambula, 28, of Dallas. "The only difference is that now their weapons are a lot more sophisticated and their bombs are a lot bigger."
Special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
