Asked about Muqtada al-Sadr last night on Special Report with Brit Hume, Retired General Robert Scales stressed that the Tehran-backed strongman's Iraqi power base is not in his preferred public home of Najaf but in the Shiite slums of so-called Sadr City in Baghdad. Even though a scant thousand or so of over one million residents are running through the streets with old Saddamite weapons, Scales believed that defeating al-Sadr could be accomplished only by ridding Sadr City of the Mahdi gangs. It appears (hat tip to Craig Brett) that while troops close in on al-Sadr in the south, Iraq and Allies are throwing an offhand punch:

U.S. forces with tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles have overrun Baghdad's Sadr city district, a powerbase for Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Reuters said today, citing unidentified witnesses.

Iraqi and U.S. troops have clashed with militia in the Baghdad district, and in Najaf and other southern cities since the cleric's followers began an uprising two weeks ago. The U.S. military yesterday said it killed more than 50 al-Sadr militiamen during an advance into Sadr City, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issues another ultimatum. This could be the permanent end to organized Iranian mischief in Iraq. Persistence will make it so.