As the fighting that took place in the southern city of Basra in Iraq, the lives of almost 300 people were claimed. The fighting was between the Medhi Army comprised of those that support Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Iraqi security forces assisted by US warplanes and British artillery.
On an ironic note, 40 national Iraqi police officers resigned to join Al-Sadr’s ranks. They even took with them the weapons provided by the United States.
Now, Al-Sadr had called off the fighting. He had ordered all of his men to stand down and to comply with the demands of the Iraqi security force. However, Al-Sadr has given stipulations to the Iraqi security force.
After making his statement of standing down, Al-Sadr demanded that he and the others are given amnesty. He also demanded that those captured to be released.
Recently, the curfew was extended indefinitely. Now, it looks as if the curfew will be lifted on Monday. While Al-Sadr and the rest of the Medhi army have stood down, there is still much fighting going on in Iraq.
In northern Iraq, there are clashes between the PKK and Turkish military troops. The US and the European Union (EU) have classified the PKK as a terrorist group. There have been high tensions between Turkey and Iraq.
Another mass grave was found near Muqdadiya. Ten people were killed on Sunday by a suicide car attack on a checkpoint.
These are signs of the chaos in Iraq.
Iraq has been the main platform of US GOP presidential nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona. He said that Iraq is the main issue that will make or break him.
The US death toll in Iraq had surpassed the 4,000 mark. It was days after the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.
Recently, a new study by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz says that the cost of Iraq costs at least $12 billion a month. He adds that the overall cost could be at least a bit over $3 trillion.
Most of the money used to rebuild Iraq has come out of the pockets of US taxpayers. A few weeks earlier, two US senators have requested a congressional inquiry in regards to Iraq’s oil revenues. They explain that while Iraq has money in banks across the world, it has done little for the reconstruction.
Amnesty International and the International Red Cross released separate reports explaining the humanitarian disaster in Iraq. Both reports did place a good amount of blame on Iraq’s government.
A recent Pentagon report talking about Iraq’s security situation explains the main problem that hurts Iraq’s reconstruction is corruption.