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Length: 4:28
HALA GORANI: All right, now to Iraq, where the prime
minister is making clear who has the final say in
that country. In a major security crackdown in Sadr
City, Nouri al-Maliki ordered the U.S. military to
lift checkpoints around the Baghdad district, a
stronghold of Shia militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
Troops began abandoning their posts shortly after
al-Sadr had called for shops to close and people to
stay home to protest what he called a siege of Sadr
City. U.S. troops set up the cordons last week to
search for an abducted soldier. An al-Sadr aide says
that was just a ruse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FATAH AL-SHEIK, SPOKESMAN FOR MUQTADA AL-SADR
(through translator): What Sadr City went through is
another lie similar to what the American government
did when it said that there were weapons of mass
destruction and occupied Iraq. This time it has
another excuse, the abducted soldier, abducted
American in Sadr City.
This is not true. There is no abducted American
soldier. But this is just an attempt to hit the city
or infiltrate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, the controversy over checkpoints is
just the latest public rift between the U.S. and
Prime Minister Maliki.
Let's get some perspective now from Michael Ware in
Baghdad.
Now, we hear the Iraqi prime minister say to the
U.S., dismantle those checkpoints. The U.S.
dismantles the checkpoints.
What message is he sending? Is this Maliki trying to
assert his authority?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very much so, Hala.
In fact, he's playing rather importantly to a
domestic audience.
I mean, he needs to establish his own power base
separate from the Americans, because quite frankly,
he does not have one. I mean, this unfolding story,
Hala, is an extremely telling one about the nature of
the bilateral relations between the U.S. and Iraq.
It began eight days ago with the mysterious
disappearance of a U.S. soldier in the most bizarre
circumstances that's left a lot of questions
unanswered. However, the American focus in terms of
getting this soldier back has been on the Jaish al
Mahdi militia of Muqtada al-Sadr and their Sadr City
stronghold here in Baghdad.
We saw the city encircled by U.S. and Iraqi
checkpoints, driven by the American forces. And then
we've seen some targeted raids which have caused an
absolute furor.
Now, this came to a head last night when Muqtada
himself called for a general strike in Sadr City's
population of 2.5 million, which today saw the
streets all but empty -- government offices closed,
shops closed. This then saw the Iraqi prime minister,
America's partner in this all-important hunt for a
missing American soldier on the eve of the elections,
order the removal of these checkpoints. Not by
telling the American forces, but through a release to
the media.
It caught the 4th Infantry Division's spokesman off
guard, and he had to catch up. We now see those
checkpoints being opened -- Hala.
GORANI: All right. One quick question there on the
shocking levels of violence we continue to see in
Baghdad and across Iraq, mass kidnappings, attacks on
wedding ceremonies. Is there any sense that all the
talk of increased cooperation between U.S. and Iraqi
officials is going to work in reducing the violence?
WARE: Oh, look, there's absolutely nothing to suggest
so far that in all of this hot air and rhetoric --
and quite frankly, that's what it's been so far --
that there's anything truly substantive. Certainly
not yet on the streets.
I mean, look at this attack in Sadr City. A bomb in a
car detonates, killing 15 people in a wedding party
convoy. This is in an area just near the Sadr City
stronghold of the Jaish al Mahdi militia and was a
focus area of the grand American-led Operation
Together Forward, the so-called Battle of Baghdad.
Yet, we are still seeing a car bomb ripping people
apart.
Twenty-two people died in the capital today alone.
Ten bullet-riddled bodies, some with signs of
execution, were found this morning.
Nothing is being done to really address the core
issues, which is the power block -- the building
blocks of power here, Hala, the militias, the
insurgency and the external players who are having a
hand here. Everything is on the surface. Nothing is
really being done by the U.S. to affect real change.
GORANI: All right. Michael Ware live in Baghdad.
Thanks so much, Michael -- Jim.