Sadr City
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Sadr City is a suburb built in Iraq in 1959 by Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. It was then named Revolution City ( مدينة ألثورة). It provided badly-needed housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, and resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 was strong there.
After suffering a variety of ill effects under the Baathist government of Saddam Hussein, under whose rule the district was renamed Saddam City, Shi'as in the district claimed a degree of autonomy from the rest of Iraq after the foreign occupation of Baghdad in April 2003, with their own police force, clinics, and food distribution. At the same time, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
The landmark of Sadr City is undoubtedly the large municipal building, which was reportedly ordered constructed for Saddam Hussein, who gave a single speech from its balcony and never returned to either the building or the city again[citation needed].
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[edit] 2003
A temporary US base, Camp Marlboro, was set up at the Iraqi cigarette factory in Sadr City, headquartering the 2nd Squadron of the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment's 800 members plus an additional 120 military police of the 549th Military Police Company and two six man teams of Civil Affairs Soldiers from the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion; all in an attempt to quell the violence of Sadr City.
[edit] 2004
In late March, the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division including 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment commanded then by Col Abrams, Robert, of the 1st Cavalry Division arrive at Camp War Eagle, replacing soldiers of the U.S. 1st Squadron 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and assume responsibility for the governance and security of Sadr City and the North East section of Baghdad.
On April 4, the Mahdi Army ambushed a U.S. Army patrol in Sadr City, killing eight American soldiers. This sparked urban fighting between the Mahdi Army and units of the 1st Brigade Combat team 1st Cavalry Division that lasted until June. Casey Sheehan, the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's son, was killed in Sadr City during the fighting on April 4.
On June 25, the Mahdi Army enacted a cease-fire with U.S. troops, and offered to help repair and rebuild the city's main infrastructure which was leaving millions without electricity, water or sewage.
On October 10, the base was hit by three mortars launched from within the city, which saw the U.S. beef up security and attach an additional 28 tanks and 14 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the camp.
The following day, on October 11, the Weapons Handover Program began in the city, which was designed to purchase weapons from militants.
[edit] 2005
On May 15, the bodies of 13 Iraqis were discovered in a shallow grave, each blindfolded, tied and shot multiple times in the back of the head. They had been hastily buried in a vacant lot.
On May 18, gunmen shot and killed Ali Mutib Sakr, a Transport Ministry driver.
On May 23, a car bomb exploded outside a crowded restaurant, killing eight Iraqis and wounding an additional 89. [1]
[edit] 2006
On March 12 three car bombs exploded, killing thirty-five people.
On July 1 a car bomb exploded in an open-air market killing 77 and wounding 96. [2]
In August the Iraqi government and the US Army locked down Sadr City for three days to search houses for hostages and death squads. Some hostages were found and freed. Multiple death squads leaders were arrested. In these three days, the number of murders in Baghdad reached the lowest level ever comparing to the average of the previous months of the US-led war.
On October 24th, the US Army locked down Sadr City while searching for a kidnapped US soldier. During the lock down, deaths dropped by 50%. When Prime Minister al-Maliki demanded the end of the blockade, the muder rate returned to previous levels. [3]
On November 23 a series of car bombs exploded, followed by mortar attacks, which killed at least 215 people. See Sadr City bombings for further details.
