Checkmate on the checkpoints
Update: Kos describes this situation thus: “Our troops were forced to leave behind one of their own because Bush is too weak to get things under control. You can bet they’re cursing Bush’s name tonight.”
Is that correct? We had cordoned off Sadr City in search of that missing soldier. And we called it off. Ugh.
U.S. Obeys Order to Abandon Checkpoints
U.S. troops on Tuesday abandoned checkpoints around the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on orders from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the latest in a series of moves by the Iraqi leader to assert his authority with the U.S. administration.
U.S. forces disappeared from the checkpoints within hours of the order to remove the around-the-clock barriers by 5 p.m., setting off celebrations among civilians and armed men gathered on the edge of the sprawling slum that is under the control of the Mahdi Army militia run by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Iraqi troops loaded coils of barbed wire and red traffic cones onto pickup trucks, while small groups of men and children danced in circles chanting slogans praising al-Sadr, who earlier Tuesday had ordered the area closed to the Iraqi government until U.S. troops lifted what he called their “siege” of the neighborhood.
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