Maliki still protecting the Mahdi

Is this an "official" leak made by the US military command in Iraq to pressure Maliki, or is this an "unofficial" leak by officers disgusted by the US command allowing Maliki's sectarianism.

A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.....

"Their only crimes or offenses were they were successful" against the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia, said Brig. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, commanding general of the Iraq Assistance Group, which works with Iraqi security forces. "I'm tired of seeing good Iraqi officers having to look over their shoulders when they're trying to do the right thing."

There's little doubt that this is true, but where it came from greatly alters the significance of the story.

Related: (AP) The US killed 8 gunmen who were reportedly Mahdi in a Baghdad clash after US forces might have entered a mosque in Kazimiyah. "If the gunmen were Mehdi Army, the clash would mark the heaviest between U.S. forces and the Mehdi militia in Baghdad since the start of the Baghdad crackdown.

(Reuters) "The U.S. military said Monday that a joint American-Iraqi raid the day before was aimed at capturing "high-value individuals" in the north Baghdad heavily Shiite district of Kazimiyah and left one Iraqi soldier and eight gunmen dead.

Iraqi police officers in the area said the raid was targeting a local office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and that the guards clashed with the forces."

(NYTimes) "The Interior Ministry official said American soldiers and Mahdi militiamen exchanged heavy gunfire near a prominent Shiite shrine in the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya, and that two American Humvees had burst into flames."

(I would discount the interpretation that this clash indicates a return of Mahdi to the streets. It sounds like the US tried to conduct a raid and the Mahdi bodyguards fought back.)

And, A very interesting look at the Mahdi, its splinter groups, power struggles, and ties to Iran.