When 1st Lieut. Raied showed up for work on April 4 at Camp Eagle, a U.S. Army base in the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City, he knew he wouldn't have much company. The executive officer of the 306th Battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), Raied and other battalion members had been warned by locals not to report for duty after fighting broke out between militants loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S. forces. Raied, who like his comrades asked to be identified only by his first name, estimates that only a third of his battalion was...
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