Three weeks after al-Maliki's Iraqi army cleared out the Mahdi Army thugs who had overrun Basra, life is starting to return to normal. Residents say they feel safer now. AFP:
Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.
The fierce fighting which marked the first week of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops, which led on Monday to the freeing of an abducted British journalist.
Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.
The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.
However, the city is flooded with troops, innumerable checkpoints constantly snarl the traffic, residents are scared to go out at night despite the curfew being relaxed, and the sound of sporadic gunfire can still be heard.
An AFP correspondent said three northwestern neighbourhoods once under the firm control of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- Al-Hayaniyah, Khamsamile and Garma -- are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches.
As Ed Morrissey points out, the Iraqi Army did the heavy lifting in Basra. Which means the lives of the people of Basra were improved by fellow Iraqis, not Americans. Another positive result: Al-Maliki's stature is enhanced, and Muqtada al Sadr has been marginalized. (REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ)
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