When Maliki became a military commander.… without army

How Maliki lost the bat­tle of Basra?

You may think Sadrists web­site nahrain­net vic­tory claims are not true say­ing: Mahdi Army is the vic­to­ri­ous in the bat­tle of Basra, Maliki changes his threats into cash-for weapon offer.

Think again, I have many rea­sons to believe it is true:

When Maliki became a mil­i­tary commander

Zaid Al-Zubaidi wrote on Al-Akhbar how Al-Maliki in a mat­ter of few min­utes became an army com­man­der, but…

Notice that Maliki didn’t play any role in Bagh­dad secu­rity plan despite its impor­tance, but the role is changed this time, Maliki wants the “hon­our” of lead­ing the Shiite-Shiite war, peo­ple close to the Iraqi gov­ern­ment say that he believe him­self as a mil­i­tary commander.

This impor­tant part gives few details about the sec­tar­ian struc­ture of the Iraqi army.

…At the for­ma­tion of the Inte­rior Min­istry [secu­rity and police] deal was: All offi­cers and leader from Dawa Party and Badr Brigades, both are part of Supreme Coun­cil of Islamic Iraqi [Al-Hakim], and low level per­son­nel from Mahdi Army who are doing the exec­u­tive tasks which makes them the sec­tar­ian hit power in the Iraqi’s eyes.

In Basra’s fights the table is turned, and this plan is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive, offi­cers can not fight with­out sol­diers and worst, offi­cers are afraid from their sol­diers that they left their posi­tions, weapons and mil­i­tary vehicles.

Elaph con­tacted sources in Basra who said that thou­sands of Basra-origin sol­diers refused to get involved in a fight with Mahdi Army fight­ers; they are about 16 thou­sand soldiers.

He con­firmed that the Mahdi Army had taken over dozens of mil­i­tary vehi­cles of the Iraqi army, Maliki’s appeal to the gun­men to lay down their arms within 72 hours was a sig­nif­i­cant fail­ure that is why he extended it few other days.