Many Baghdad Shiites Now View Mahdi Army as a Band of Street Thugs
October 12, 2007 5:50 am Mahdi Army, IraqRelations Sour Between Shiites and Iraq Militia - New York Times, October 12, 2007
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.