Will's video: Second Siege of Sadr City by U S Army - 2008

On April 6, 2008, the Iraqi National Security Council released a statement calling on all political parties to disband their militias if they want to participate in the elections later in the year. The statement was seen to be directed at Muqtada al-Sadr, who derives most of his support from Sadr City. On the same day, a joint U.S. and Iraqi military force (Iraqi elements drawn from the 11th Division) moved into the southern suburbs of Sadr City, provoking heavy street fighting as militiamen opened fire with RPGs and automatic weapons. U.S. Apache helicopters provided air support during the battle, launching Hellfire missiles at militiamen and their vehicles...The raid was a part of an attempt to stop mortar and rocket fire on the Green Zone by seizing neighborhoods in Sadr City used as launching points by the Mahdi Army, Rockets and mortar fire continued to fall on the Green Zone and U.S. military bases around the capital. Three US soldiers and at least 20 Iraqis had been killed by the end of the day... Over the next week, militiamen in Sadr City and the neighboring suburbs continued emplacing IEDs, firing rockets and attacking U.S. forces constructing the barrier along al-Quds street. However U.S. forces, supported by UAVs firing Hellfire missiles, Bradley APCs, M1A2 tanks and U.S. Special Forces, inflicted heavy casualties on the militiamen. The U.S. military claimed that between May 3 and May 9, it had killed at least 76 militiamen... On May 11, a cease-fire went into effect and on May 12 a 14-point agreement was signed between the Iraqi government and representatives of Muqtada al-Sadr, granting Iraqi military forces permission by the Mahdi Army to enter the district to establish security checkpoints and to hunt for rogue militiamen. Under the agreement, the U.S. military would not enter areas of Sadr City north of al-Quds street, but the Mahdi Army promised to stop rocket attacks on U.S. military bases and the Green Zone... At least 941 people were killed. Among the dead were 22 U.S. and 17 Iraqi soldiers as well as 331 militants and 591 civilians. 100 U.S. soldiers and more than 1,700 civilians were wounded. 549 of the civilians were killed in Sadr City while another 42 were killed in different parts of Baghdad by mortars, fired from Sadr City, which missed the Green Zone.