Another massive operation by the Shia

Four US and one Austrian security contractors were seized in an attack on a supply convoy yesterday presumably by Shia forces near Basra. (In the effort to find tham, the British have cordoned off a section of Basra and the US has raided a police station in in nearby Zubayr.)

But take a look at the scale of this attack.

A U.S. Embassy official, who refused to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information, said the convoy included 43 heavy trucks and six security vehicles. Some of the hijackers were dressed as Iraqi police and those men took away 20 vehicles, he said.

This is not some small group of bandits; it is another large scale coordinated operation carried out by the Shia at 1PM in broad daylight. I think we need to make note of the significant growth in scale and sophistication of the Shia attacks, like the Education Ministry kidnappings, as it indicates greater training, larger unit size, better planning and communications, and far more freedom in their "safe" areas.

Over the last year, the Shia have gone from small, unit-sized death squad activities to fairly large coordinated operations. If the Iraqis, or the US, decides to "go after the Shia militias," and they decide to really fight, it is going to be very messy.

(It should probably be added that with all the reports of contractor violence, this could've been specifically targeted to one of these contractors (like Mahmoudiyah.) Nothing to indicate that at this point. Just a possibility I wanted to introduce.)