In the West Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriya, 25-year-old Saif Awad was known as "the Assassin." He didn't look like a killer. Handsome and well groomed, Awad made a show of attending prayers and Shiite religious celebrations. But, locals say, he also ran a brutal kidnapping ring linked to Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and shook down newcomers to Hurriya—even other Shiites—for protection money. In recent months he'd taken to wearing flashier clothes and flaunting his two new cars. He was driving one of them to the shop last November when three men on motorcycles roared up and riddled the Toyota with bullets, killing Awad. An eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous for his own safety, says the killers were fellow members of the Mahdi Army. "Death is the punishment for those who disobey the Mahdi Army," says Bassim Abdul Zahra, a Hurriya resident close to the militia. "By killing these dissenters, the leadership sends a warning." Gen. David Petraeus has been deservedly praised for tamping down violence in Iraq, but an unlikely character deserves some credit—Sadr. Five months ago the firebrand cleric ordered his followers to lay down their arms, and they've largely obeyed. Mahdi cadres have gone after bad seeds like the Assassin, whose thuggish tactics have disgusted ordinary Iraqis. American officers now talk about "splitting the seams" within the Shiite militia—working with moderates in the group to isolate the radicals, similar to the strategy adopted to tame the Sunni insurgency. U.S. commanders are engaged in talks with the Shiite militants for the first time since 2003. In public statements the Americans are careful to distinguish between the "special groups" trained and funded by Iran—who are accused of the bulk of Shiite attacks on U.S. forces—and the Sadrist mainstream. "We thought that it would be important that we respect [Sadr's] decision to, fairly courageously, declare the ceasefire," Petraeus said in a recent interview with NEWSWEEK. In some Baghdad neighborhoods, the Americans are even paying Mahdi fighters to help keep the peace. Officially, the Sadrists deny any dialogue with Americans; a senior cleric says talks are a "red line" the movement wouldn't cross. But Petraeus says he is in regular contact with a "senior Sadr political official." Some of his ground commanders exchange text messages with counterparts in the Mahdi Army. More at: Link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/96370
