Barefoot children hurled stones and abuse as US tanks rattled into position at the crossroads of Sadr City’s town hall yesterday. The scene was as if the worst fears of US military planners had been realised: a Palestinian-style intifada among the majority Shia population looked ready to plunge Iraq deeper into chaos. US troops had taken back the building on Sunday night from the forces of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who had held it, along with several police stations, for an hour-and-a-half. But the US victory not only cost eight American and 50 Iraqi dead, it transformed this once supportive shanty town into a seething mass of hostility. US soldiers rumbled their tanks backwards and forwards and fired sonic bombs to scare away children stoning their sides. A soldier said his commander had ordered the tanks into Sadr City because Mr Sadr’s militia had torched three of their cars with rocket-propelled grenades.Full Story
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