All of a sudden, US military commanders are surprised by a rise in attacks against US forces in ares where the Shia community are considered a majority.

NO! Am I surprised, too? Hell, no!

I have over the past year written that the resistance in Iraq is comprised of both Shia and Sunni and that several videos depicting Shia resistance groups attacking US personnel have been released on the web.

But, no, the US media and the experts and their loyal paid bloggers said. There is no Shia resistance, they said.

How could there not be? Tens of thousands of Shia families have been killed by US forces. Are we surprised to see their kin take arms against the invader?

Yes, military commanders, say. We are surprised:

US troops in a relatively quiet Shiite area south of Baghdad have come under increasing attack by groups linked to Shiite militias, even as relations with Sunnis have improved in other areas, a US commander said.

Colonel John Tully, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, said people associated with radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi militia were often linked to the attacks in his area.

The attacks, which mainly involved roadside bombs, were up by about 25 percent, he said.

"You know, maybe two more per week, something along those lines. It's not a significant spike, but it's worrisome, because I do have people operating on the roads," Tully told reporters via video link from Baghdad.

His brigade's area of operations ranges from the Shiite centers of Najaf and Karbala to the confessionally mixed province of Babil and a slice of predominantly Sunni territory south of Baghdad in the Euphrates and Tigris river valleys.

In the Sunni areas, tribal leaders have been more willing to work with US forces in their areas, turning what were insurgent safe havens into places that are showing signs of economic life, he said.

"So there has been openings with the Sunnis, and there has been some slight deterioration with the Shia," Tully said.

The ITM blog speculates that there is a Shia-Sunni convergence, an Islamic resistance movement to oust the invader may be in the works.

Good, I say. All Iraqis should unite but not under the banner of Islam necessarily. NATIONALISM, does a nation good, no?

So, now that US counterattacks have risen and Bushco are sending 3,500 additional troops, the terrorists in Iraq are nervous.

Indeed. Hakim, the leader of SCIRI and the Badr terror group is refusing to allow these additional troops any role in Iraqi security.

"We must activate the project of popular committees to secure the neighbourhoods," he said, echoing calls from other Shiite leaders for local militias to protect their districts from Iraq's roving death squads.

"The security file should be handed over to Iraqi forces and no one should interfere with it," he told supporters in Najaf. "The interference in the work of Iraqi security forces prevents them from catching terrorists."

Ah, yes. More militia. More Badr terrorists killing Iraqis. Yes, obey what Iran says, obey what the Qumsters say.

I hope the US military wipes out all Iran's agents in Iraq. Iraq is for Iraqis - ALL Iraqis, I don't care what their religion or creed is - but Iranian agents and their allies WILL be hunted.

The US has to decide. Does it want Greater Iran? Or free Iraq? If you want a free Iraq, work with the Iraqi nationalists.

You know who they are.