I could see a limited operation while withdrawing dedicated to this sort of effort, bringing together Iraqi troops and Sunni Tribesman in Anbar province, something the predominantly Shia Army is unlikely to pull off. As for the US plans to begin operations in Sadr City, that seems to me to be creating more cannon fodder for the Mahdi Army to show it's stuff. It's their neighborhood. We need to be focusing our efforts in Sunni areas and leave the Shias to their own areas.
washingtonpost.com
Iraqi security forces backed by Sunni tribesmen killed dozens of suspected Sunni insurgents over several hours of fighting Wednesday in a village in western Iraq, Iraqi police officials said Thursday.
The fighting was unusually fierce for an Iraqi-led operation and was also notable because of the collaboration of tribesmen in volatile Anbar province. In recent months, the U.S. military has aligned itself with dozens of tribal sheiks who are collaborating in an effort to drive the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq from the vast desert territory.
The clashes on Wednesday began about 1 p.m. when insurgents attacked a village near Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, and ended about six hours later when Iraqi soldiers, police and the tribal fighters killed 50 suspected insurgents and captured 80 others, according to Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Khalaf declined to say how many Iraqi security personnel were killed or injured.
"This is part of the Interior Ministry strategy to support the Baghdad security plan in targeting terrorism in the areas surrounding Baghdad," he said. "The tribes in this area refused to join al-Qaeda."
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