US military recruits more ex-cons

The US Army and Marine Corps recruited significantly more people with criminal records last year than in 2006, amid pressure to meet combat needs.

Statistics released by a congressional committee show 861 people were granted waivers to enlist, up from 457 in 2007.

The crimes included assault, sex crimes, manslaughter and burglary.

The Army says waivers are only granted after careful review and are in response to the challenges of recruiting in a changing society.

The number of people granted waivers are just a small fraction of the more than 180,000 people who entered active duty in the armed forces during the fiscal year that ended in September 2007.

But the perceived lowering of standards is causing concern in some quarters.

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GIs in Sadr City caught between warring Iraqi sides

Three weeks after U.S. troops were ordered into the sprawling Shiite Muslim slum of Sadr City to stop rockets from raining down on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone, they’re caught in crossfire between Shiite militiamen and the mostly Shiite Iraqi army.

American soldiers who try to move around this urban area, even in the U.S. Army’s state-of-the-art Stryker armored vehicles, risk being ambushed. The soldiers in a platoon from the 25th Infantry Division quickly learned that holding a position puts them in the line of fire from both the Mahdi Army militia and the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.

The American soldiers can’t go on the offensive from the run-down two-story house they commandeered in south Sadr City, but must hunker down and wait to get shot at.

An Iraqi family evacuated the house just before the fighting started. It has rats and clogged toilets but no electricity or hot water, and no air conditioning or heating. The American soldiers have had one shower and barely a change of clothes since they got here.

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Anti-US cleric al-Sadr threatens new uprising in Iraq

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a “final warning” to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare “open war until liberation.”

A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.

Al-Sadr’s warning appeared on his Web site as Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting claimed 14 more lives in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

Fighting in Sadr City and the crackdown in Basra are part of a government campaign against followers of al-Sadr and Iranian-backed Shiite splinter groups that the U.S. has identified as the gravest threat to a democratic Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, has ordered al-Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army, Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia, or face a ban from politics.

In the statement, al-Sadr lashed back, accusing the government of selling out to the Americans and branding his followers as criminals.

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Iraqi PM serves Sadr ultimatum

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has said that Muqtada al-Sadr, the populist Shia leader, will be barred from taking part in the “political process” unless he disbands his Mahdi Army militia.

Al-Maliki on Monday said in an interview with the CNN network that he was determined to pursue militias across the country, including those in Sadr City – a stronghold of the Mahdi Army.

However, according to an al-Sadr aide, if religious leaders obey Maliki’s demands, al-Sadr himself will order the disbanding of the Mahdi Army.

Maliki said: “A decision was taken… that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mahdi Army

“We will not stop until we have full control of these areas. The operation has started and will not stop until a decisive victory is achieved … a victory that will not allow these people to attack the Green Zone or other areas.”

The Green Zone, a highly defended area of Baghdad where the Iraqi government and the US embassy are situated, has come under sustained attack by rockets and mortar rounds fired for the past two weeks, allegedly from Sadr City.

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Green Zone turns into war zone, Basra under siege

Baghdad’s Green Zone — often referred to as a
relatively safe and fortified refuge for Americans,
other Westerners, and politicians in Iraq —
appeared to be nothing short of a war
zone Thursday.

Warning sirens for bombs blared all day as diplomats and U.S. workers donned flak jackets and ducked for cover from mortars and rockets that poured down throughout Baghdad. Those U.S. government workers brave enough to ignore a lockdown order by their government and venture into nearly empty city streets saw a city under siege.

Thick billows of smoke drifting over the Tigris River after a blast-ignited fire were just one sign the city had turned into a combat zone. Since Sunday, at least two Americans and a dozen Iraqis have been killed in Baghdad. One American died Thursday, and more than a dozen others were injured.

Rockets and bombs appeared to be timed with clockwork precision, landing about every hour, beginning in the morning and continuing into the evening. The fourth day of attacks this week by suspected Shiite militiamen was capped by a government curfew; on Thursday night, unauthorized residents weren’t allowed on city streets.

Full story:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080327/iraq_green_080327/20080327?hub=CTVNewsAt11

Iraq PM offers money for arms

Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, has
exteneded a deadline to April 8 for Shia
militiamen to hand over weapons or face
“severe penalties”.

In a statement on Friday, he said: “All those who have heavy and intermediate weapons are to deliver them to security sites and they will be rewarded financially.”

The Iraqi government has been struggling to contain a crisis set off earlier in the week after a military crackdown in the southern city of Basra sparked clashes across the country.

More than 130 people have been killed in the fighting and a three-day lockdown has been imposed in the capital.

An official said the prime minister would skip a meeting of Arab leaders in Syria over the weeekend to deal with the spreading violence. Al-Maliki has pledged “no retreat” in the fight against Shia militia forces in the country’s south.

Full story:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/443E0166-B886-4025-B59D-D9E5EE69FF70.htm