ARAB-US RELATIONS - Mar 4 - US Forces Extend Baghdad Push.

US and Iraqi forces begin to sweep house to house through the huge Baghdad slum of Sadr City, the first such operation in this stronghold of radical Shi'ite militias during the current push for security in the capital. The sweep comes the day after PM Nouri al-Maliki announced an upcoming cabinet reshuffle in which he is expected to replace some ministers from the Sadrist trend in an indication that the government has lifted the political protection the radical Shi'ite movement had previously enjoyed. US troops encountered little to no resistance as they pushed through the huge grid of Sadr City, previously the stronghold of the Mahdi Army which, in 2004, fought pitched battles with US troops on its streets. While the area had not been completely off limits to US troops, who occasionally launched raids against specific targets, residents say that much of the slum has never been methodically searched. Many residents consider the Mahdi Army to be the slum's de facto police force, crediting it with preventing ordinary crime as well as keeping out insurgents. Since Maliki announced two months ago that he would be cracking down on militias, however, many Mahdi Army commanders and other Sadrist leaders have fled. Muqtada al-Sadr, the movement's spiritual leader, who, according to US officials, is in Iran, has reportedly ordered his followers not to resist US or Iraqi government troops. Nonetheless, the US military says that it negotiated with local council leaders before entering the neighbourhood in force. Commanders say that they will open a joint US-Iraqi security station inside the neighbourhood, as they have elsewhere in the capital as part of a plan to keep insurgents and militias from re-establishing themselves after the initial push has secured territory. The British military said on Sunday that Iraqi special forces, backed by troops of the multinational coalition, raided a government intelligence headquarters in the southern city of Basra and found evidence of torture and links to bomb attacks.