Article: Delicate challenge of taming Iraq's militias; Some armed groups have helped a stretched US force, but long-run plan is to disarm them.(USA)

Byline: Faye Bowers Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON -- As US troops enter a second week of fighting an Iraqi insurgency, it is painfully clear how important it is to either integrate or eliminate the many armed militias in Iraq before the June 30 handover.

In fact, the fighting that erupted the beginning of April, in which some 70 Americans and 700 Iraqis have died, may have been part of a calculated effort to eliminate Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi army, one of the most feared and despised militias in Iraq. In preparation for the transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Governing Council on June 30, CPA ...

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