May the government at last rein in the Shia militias?
There is a glimmer of hope that the prime minister has changed heart
LAST May, Iraq's newly-chosen prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, declared his government's intention to “put an end to the militias” believed to be responsible for most of the country's hideous sectarian violence. Since then, as bodies have piled up in their thousands, it has become plain that most of the killers were members of the Mahdi Army, tied to a radical Shia movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr and a key partner in Mr Maliki's government.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “May the government at last rein in the Shia militias?”
From the January 27th 2007 edition
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