HERE WE GO AGAIN!. SHIITE FORCES BATTLE IRAQI MILITARY. FRAGILE PEACE IN DOUBT

Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East knows that it was only a matter of time until the fragile peace the United States has been bragging so much about was going to collapse.

The first signs of the peace collapsing took place on Friday as Shiite militia members battled with the Iraqi military. There were also other incidents of peace unraveling in other parts of Iraq as various warring militias begin to battle with each other again.

Shiite clashes fray truce
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=AgK0kKosXRuTiLyvg5Uzf1lX6GMA

Iraqi security forces battled Shiite gunmen south of Baghdad on Friday, raising tensions among rival factions of the country's majority religious community and straining a seven-month cease-fire proclaimed by the biggest Shiite militia.

Also Friday, an American soldier was killed and four others were wounded in a rocket or mortar attack south of the capital, the military said. At least 3,993 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war five years ago, according to an Associated Press count. The statement did not provide more details about the location; the area has a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite extremists.

The fighting in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, broke out Thursday night when factions of the Mahdi Army, led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, attacked checkpoints throughout the city, officials and witnesses said.

Two policemen and two gunmen were killed during the clashes in Kut, which ended Friday, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.

Also Friday, U.S. and Iraqi forces raided neighborhoods of southern Baghdad and Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of the capital, detaining suspected members of the Mahdi Army, Iraqi police said.
Al-Sadr proclaimed a cease-fire last August and extended it indefinitely last month. But the firebrand cleric, who led two uprisings against U.S.-led forces in 2004, has authorized his followers to defend themselves if attacked.

Al-Sadr's supporters have complained that the Shiite-led government has used the cease-fire to accelerate a crackdown against their movement in Baghdad and the Shiite heartland south of the capital.