Mahdi Army Occupies Kut

There was heavy fighting Wednesday and Thursday morning in the Jumhuriya district of the southern oil port of Basra. That is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, now under assault by the Iraqi military, with rocket propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire raining down on the civilian neighborhood.

Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that the Mahdi Army still controls its neighborhoods in Basra. It says that there are reports that rival militiamen, presumably the Badr Corps of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, have converged on the Sadrist neighborhoods and have joined the fight against the Mahdi Army side by side with government troops.

Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrists, demanded that Prime Minister al-Maliki leave Basra so that local notables and clergy could negotiate a settlement of the crisis. That was his reply to al-Maliki's ultimatum that the Mahdi Army disarm within three days.