It is almost sad to see how pathetically weak Sadr’s rag tag militia is against the professional and well trained US and Iraq forces. The vaunted Mahdi Army apparently is an impotent force that falls well short of all the hand wringing concern from the SurrederMedia. Checkout how badly the Mahdi did just yesterday:

In Suq Ash Shuyukh, southeast of Nasiriyah, Iraq, a combined force of more than 300 Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics personnel, advised by U.S. Special Operations Forces, killed 40 criminal militia members and arrested an additional 40 after the Iraqi forces were attacked by the militia members.

Using assault rifles and automatic weapons, the criminal militia attacked Iraqi Security Forces in the morning. Regional police and Army forces on alert in the area responded in force, overwhelming the outnumbered criminal militia fighters.

Facing a combination of armored vehicles and suppressive fire, the criminals retreated to a building that contained the local Sadr Trend office. With Iraqi special weapons and tactics personnel providing support, additional security forces launched a counter attack, overrunning the remaining enemy defenses. The ISF entered the building and cleared it of the remaining criminals.

During the sweep of the building, ISF found a large weapons cache containing explosively formed penetrators, Katyusha rockets, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a large quantity of additional weapons and ammunition. An explosive ordnance disposal team also found several improvised explosive devices rigged to explode inside the building. All weapons were destroyed on site.

Many local Iraqis witnessed the fighting and thanked the ISF for their bravery and willingness to defend their town.

…

In eastern Baghdad, a Multinational Division Baghdad aerial weapons teams, or AWT, killed seven criminals as ground forces seized weapons in separate incidents.

Around 6:30 p.m., the AWT located two criminals transporting weapons in Sadr City district, in the eastern section of the Iraqi capital. The AWT engaged them with a Hellfire missile, killing both criminals and destroying two machine guns.

About two hours later, criminals using small-arms fire attacked coalition forces. The troops returned fire, killing one.

…

In eastern Baghdad around 3 a.m., an AWT was conducting an aerial surveillance patrol when the crew saw two criminals with a mortar tube. The AWT engaged them with a Hellfire missile, killed both criminals. The missile also demolished the mortar tube.

…

Elsewhere in Iraq yesterday, Operation Saulat al Fursan, or “Charge of the Knights,” began a new phase of operations around Basra.

Phase three of the operation focuses on the criminal militia strongholds within the Hyyaniyah district area. Iraqi Army soldiers of the 1st and 14th infantry divisions are conducting the deliberate clearance operation, military officials said.

The operation began at approximately 6 a.m., when British artillery and U.S. aircraft fired ordnance against known criminal rocket and mortar sites west of Hyyaniyah.

Pretty pathetic efforts on the part of the Mahdi. They move weapons for shooting they get killed before they can set up. They spring an attack they get wiped out and followed back to their hideout where they lose all the rest of their weapons and everyone back at the base camp. If this is “open war” it will be over very quickly. In fact, it may be coming to an end now:

U.S. officials said Wednesday that a military campaign in the stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has succeeded in nearly eliminating the deadly rocket and mortar attacks launched from the area.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling for weeks in the capital’s Sadr City neighborhood against Shiite fighters tied to Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia. The U.S. military said at least 142 suspected fighters have been killed, including at least 15 Tuesday night.

The military on Wednesday also announced that a U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire in eastern Baghdad.

American officials said the mission in Sadr City was to stop attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone, the center of U.S. military and Iraqi government operations here. since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a campaign against Shiite fighters last month in the southern city of Basra.

“We accomplished what we were trying to do, which was to stop the indirect fire,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff for Multinational Division-Baghdad. “The manifestation of the violence that you’re talking about has pretty much stopped.”

At least 697 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired since March 23, mostly from Sadr City, according to U.S. military statistics. The data showed that 292 struck U.S.-led coalition forces, 291 hit Iraqi neighborhoods and 114 fell in the Green Zone.

Emphasis mine. Note that Sadr City and the Mahdi had been firing rockets (and missing their mark half the time and killing Iraqis – unlike our precision weapons) at the Iraqi and US forces prior to the crackdown. The SurrenderMedia tries to hide the fact open fighting was ongoing with missile and rocket and mortar attacks. They cannot bring themselves to face the fact this was just a security action against thugs with weapons – not the Arab uprising they have been praying would finally arise and defeat America’s efforts. The only uprising in the Arab streets has been against the Islamo Fascists.

I agree with Tom Donally at the Weekly Standard, Sadr and his Mahdi are in deep trouble. And those who keep fantasizing that the Mahdi threat is growing verses being decimated are losing too – all their credibility. At least whatever credibility they have left, which ain’t much after claiming the Surge was a failure, Afghanistan a quagmire and Saddam too strong to take out because the Arab Street will rise up to defend him (damn, those predictions look even more idiotic in hindsight than they did when the left made them years ago). The great “Mahdi Vietnam” chicken-little cries pretty much drained the swamp of any credibility. Not sure what planet the SurrenderMedia and Surrendercrats live on, but it sure is not planet Earth.