While the fighting in Sadr City that has raged for weeks between US-Iraqi forces and suspected elements of the Mahdi Army militia has not showed any signs of abating, rumors continue to circulate in Iraqi media of possible deals between the Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army leadership to end the standoff.
Today, an Iraqi news outlet writes in Arabic that it has conducted an exclusive interview with "sources close to the Sadrist Current" who said that "the parties responsible for launching mortars against the green Zone could stop their fire if US forces withdrew from Sadr City and left matters to the Iraqi forces" to conduct search operations in the city, "which would not be met with confrontations by the Mahdi Army fighters."
Al-Malaf Press also reports that sources close to the Sadrist Current have said that "Mahdi Army commanders who are leading battles in Sadr City" have learned their own sources, described as "close to the office" of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that the Iraqi PM is "astonished" at what he reportedly termed as "vengeance missiles" that have fallen on the Green Zone, the heavily fortified section of Baghdad that hosts the headquarters of Iraqi and American officialdom in the country.
The same sources who reportedly told Mahdi Army commanders of the attitudes in the PM's office also said that the PM is disturbed that the missiles seem calibrated to kill their targets, the agency writes.
US military sources have cited figures of 700 missiles and around 120 mortars on the Green Zone since March 23, al-Malaf Press writes, and the agency also cited an American source in the Green Zone who said that each day the missiles "are nearer and nearer to their targets."
More missiles fell on the Green Zone Friday, one of which fell on the riverbank near the US embassy, the agency reports, noting that a surprise sandstorm has hit the Baghdad area, providing cover for the third time in recent days for missile crews to fire on the Green Zone.
Rumors have circulated recently of a possible deal between the Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army or the Sadrist leadership, to which the militia is linked, but none of these have been confirmed as yet, and deadly fighting continues in the district.
