Graphic source: Washington Post
Please note the bias on the part of the respected source. The red part of Quds Street is about 3.2 miles according to NIMA, the US mapping agency. The Washington Post, with a cohort of local stringers and the efforts of Columbia University types, still make a mistake. The scale is wrong on such a basic aspect of mapping at 7.5 miles. On the other hand, perhaps its a typographical mistake. In this case, the 4 on the miles scale should be a 1. In any event, the Washington Post's typo seems to have permit a bias. By making Quds Street appear 2.5 times longer than it really is, they want to send a message that this project is doomed, and that JAM (the Mahdi) is unbeatable. They are not. The incorrect scale should be about 1.5 miles, which is not a standard. Thus the scale was arbitrary and pulled out of a hat to serve a bias.
The recent attacks in Sadr City have centered around the barrier that U.S. Army engineers are building. The Mahdi Army attacks are hampering progress here on Qods Street, dividing the Ishbilyah and the Habbibiyah neighborhoods, which are controlled by the US and Iraqi military, from the northern neighborhoods. The four goals are: to restrict the movement of weapons and supplies into the southern neighborhoods, prevent the Mahdi Army from using these areas as launch sites for mortar and rocket attacks against the International Zone, establish the writ of the government, and provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqis living in these areas in order to wrest control from the Mahdi Army, according to the Long War Journal. A total of 465 Mahdi Army fighters have been confirmed killed in and around Sadr City since March 25. The Iraqi government has stated that the Sadrist political movement would not be able to participate in upcoming provincial elections if it failed to disband the Mahdi Army.
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