Iraqi government claims Mahdi Army on verge of collapse

The contents of the assessment were leaked to the Gulf News last week. It asserts that a further 1,300 Sadrist militiamen have fled Iraq to safe houses in Iran. The report assesses that the offensives have led to the almost complete collapse of the militia and that the operations currently underway in Amarah will see the end of the Mahdi Army. The number of [militia] members doesnt exceed 150 to 200, hugely down from the total estimated number of 50,000 in the past two years, it stated.

There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the assessment. Since Moqtada al-Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to offer no resistance to US and Iraqi government operations last August, its membership has been systematically hunted down. The total number of Special Groups criminals and rogue militiamen that the US military claims to have killed or arrested during the one-sided ceasefire would easily run into the thousands.

Special Groups criminal is the term used to describe the Mahdi Army fighters who are allegedly conducting armed resistance to the US occupation with assistance from Iran. The phrase was initially employed to disassociate them from Sadrwho was respectfully referred to by American officers as Sayyed Moqtada after he ordered the ceasefire, in deference to his descent from the Prophet Mohammed. The 35-year-old cleric is believed to be in the Iranian city of Qom, undertaking studies to raise his religious rank.

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