"The Front agreed to return in part because of the security offensive that al-Maliki launched last month against Shiite militiamen in the southern port city of Basra...Abdul-Sattar did not elaborate, but the offensive appeared to have signaled to the Accordance Front that al-Maliki was willing to go after the Sadrists, whose support won him the prime minister's job in 2006."
Poster's comments:
There has been a lot of political progress in Iraq since the surge began establishing the necessary conditions, but the Maliki government's independent action to reign in the rebel militias has been the most dramatic. Although it was downplayed and even portrayed negatively in US media, it was seen as a huge success to the Iraqi public and greatly boosted faith in the new government.
Nichols
4/17/2008 3:48:00 PM