Today's violence is more of the same and there is no clear-cut result to the day's activity at the very least. On the other hand, despite the typical mainstream Western press which misses the boat nearly all the time, the Mahdi militia is experiencing heavy losses. The Western press appears to report stories based on what it would like presented, rather than reporting what actually is occurring. Thus, Mahdi is really being tested severely, rather than Basra being a test of the admittedly fragile Iraqi government. To wit, since fighting started Tuesday 347 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 531 were wounded, 343 were captured, and 30 surrendered. Coalition forces killed 125 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad alone, while Iraqi security forces have killed 140 Mahdi fighters in Basra. While estimates of the Mahdi Army is debatable, most analysts postulate the Mahdi between 40,000 to 60,000. Since an estimated 1,000 Mahdi fighters were killed, captured, wounded and surrendered, the Mahdi has an attrition rate of 1.5 to 2.5 percent over the past five days. That attrition is a significant attrition.
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