An apparent split emerging in the Mahdi Army — led by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — is where the U.S. military hopes to make its gains. They are aided by Mahdi members seeking to purge rivals they describe as "criminal elements."
Those willing to cooperate with the Americans are part of a larger group that calls itself the "noble Mahdi Army" and accuses others in the Mahdi Army of going too far by killing innocent Sunni civilians and embezzling militia funds. The informants also target fighters they claim were trained and armed by Iranians, but offer no further proof or details.
"The true Mahdi Army believes in loyalty to Iraq, but there are thieves and gangsters among them now," said a 54-year-old Shiite in Hurriyah, a northwest Baghdad neighborhood where militiamen drove out thousands of Sunnis last year. He refused to give his name out of fear for his life.
As time goes on and Shias see how Iran is trying to use Iraqi Shias as the bleeding edge of an Iranian attempt to control Iraq, the chance that this could work will drop to nothing.
We are neutralizing the Mahdi Army without much fanfare. Success in this kind of effort--which I called for early--will end the last internal threat to the Iraqi government. Killers will remain, to be sure, but the remnant killers of the Baathist, jihadi, and Sadrist variety will simply be killed or arrested by an increasingly confident and capable Iraqi government.
