In May we watched as Iranian-backed Islamist thug Muqtada al-Sadr sent hundreds of his widely disliked thugs to their deaths against Allied troops while Iraqi Shiites rallied against the diastrous Khomeinist insurrection. In June, a survey of Iraqi opinion taken by the Coalition Provisional Authority exposed al-Sadr as less popular than the manacled, defeated Saddam Hussein. Kept alive by a CPA and Iraqi interim government that demurred on their promise to drag him off to a murder trial, al-Sadr has bided his time, with only the occasional paranoid outburst.

Armed men reportedly loyal to the man most Iraqis consider a criminal have attacked Allied and Iraqi troops over the past two days, with painfully familiar results:

U.S. marines have killed an estimated 300 fighters loyal to a firebrand Iraqi Shi'ite cleric in fierce clashes around the holy city of Najaf in the past two days, a senior U.S. officer said on Friday.

In addition to a confirmation of the obvious — foreign Islamists are mixing in with street vermin — there is also more evidence that, as I've noted before, the lines between terrorist insurgency and gangster mayhem are blurring:

U.S. officials said there were indications foreign fighters had joined the Mehdi militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf. Criminal gangs were also involved, they said.

Al-Sadr has apparently offered another olive branch; one that, judging by his language, he intends to swing at the Iraqi government if they don't let him off the hook again. True enough, Muqtada al-Sadr is as strategically feckless and politically demolished as he was even days after his April excuse for an "uprising" had begun. But by all accounts, best expressed by blogger Mohammed, Iraqis are as fed up with the persistence of the man and his minions as Americans were with Prohibition Gangland, and no longer care what consequences their leaders fear from simply knocking al-Sadr down:

It’s obvious that the new Iraqi government is not sure that it’s strong enough now to face a military revolt carried by Sadr followers while the coalition seemed always worried of how arresting Muqtada or crushing his persistent tries to disturb peace would affect the religious feelings of the common Iraqi She’at. I just want to say that common She’at in Iraq maybe simple but they are not stupid and they know what a fake this guy is and they know what’s good for them and what’s bad.

...We should put these thugs in their right place; traitors and mercenaries who took the opposite side to the majority of Iraqis, helping Iraq's enemies in spreading chaos while we all try to put our country on the right path to peace and democracy.

It's probable that if the Allies are confident that al-Sadr's death or capture will disperse, rather than invigorate, the rabble, they're contemplating whether to do it themselves or wait for Iraqi forces.