Salvation Revelation

President Bush on Wednesday delivered a speech lauding progress in Iraq. “Normalcy is returning back to Iraq,” he said. On the same day, administration officials huddled over what to do about a rapidly deteriorating security there.

Iraq’s government has tried for days to crack down on Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra, and American commanders have said U.S. forces are just playing a backup role in that effort. But The Washington Post reports that U.S. forces appear to have taken a lead role in battles in Sadr City, a Shiite stronghold in Baghdad.

Wissam Al-Okaili, AFP / Getty Images

A crowd protests Thursday in Sadr City, a Shiite stronghold in Baghdad, against the Iraqi government’s crackdown on Shiite militias there and in Basra, a key port city.

“The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday…” the newspaper says.

Other highlights from the story:

· Fighting spread to six Baghdad neighborhoods, and American troops were involved in about a dozen firefights in those areas. The U.S. military said troops killed 42 people.

· Coalition forces bombed militants Thursday in Basra, the center of Iraq’s oil industry.

· Administration officials told The Post that al-Maliki launched the crackdown in Basra without consulting the United States. One official was quoted as saying “we can’t quite decipher” what is going on in the city.

· Americans in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone have been urged to stay indoors and to wear body armor if they go outside.

· Fighting broke out Wednesday in Hillah, and U.S. special forces joined the battle after militants attacked a roadside checkpoint, killing nine members of an Iraqi unit.

Here’s The Post’s report on Bush’s speech.