From the DEBKAfile:

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: After three days of combat, thousands of troops led by prime minister Nouri al Maliki have made no headway in breaking the grip of militias and gangs on the southern oil city of Basra and the outlying towns. Friday, March 28, the prime minister softened his previous ultimatum for combatants to hand over their weapons, extending it from Saturday night to April 8, and throwing in “a financial reward” for those complying.

From a go-it-alone Iraqi venture, Maliki was reduced Friday to calling in US airplanes to bomb militia positions holding fast in Basra. Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi army appears still in control of the densely-populated areas of Basra, Iraq’s third largest city of 2.5 million, as well as taking over the center of Shiite Nasiriyeh. The intra-Shiite clashes have also spread to the southern Shiite cities of Kut, Hilla, Diwaniya, Amara and Karbala.

DEBKAfile’s sources report that for Maliki, the intra-Shiite conflict which he has ignited in the whole of southern Iraq up to and including Baghdad is looking like a win-all, lose-all gamble for himself and his government.

In the Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, thousands of Sadr supporters took to the streets sparring with the US Strykers and police and calling for Maliki to resign.

After Sadr called for a political solution to the crisis, Iraq’s parliament was called into session Friday afternoon. They will meet under the three-day curfew imposed on Baghdad after repeated rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone seat of government left two US government employees dead.

US embassy staff in Baghdad have been told not to leave reinforced structures and wear protective clothing including helmets following the rocket attacks on the Green Zone – 16 Wednesday and 12 Tuesday. The three-day curfew imposed Thursday night bans pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the city.

Two oil pipelines were hit by bombs after the fighting began – one carrying oil to an export terminal in Basra harbor. Thursday night, Maliki was praised by President George Bush, who said “normalcy was returning to Iraq.”