2008 Iraq spring fighting

2008 Iraq spring fighting
	Part of the 2006–2008 civil war phase of the Iraq War
Location	Iraq
Result	Military stalemate, political Mahdi Army victory Mahdi army militants granted immunity; Iraqi forces gain control of Sadr City; Iraqi forces launch further offensives to fully recapture the cities of Karbala, Najaf, Kut, Amarah, and Diwaniyah and the areas surrounding them; End of the Iraqi civil war (2006–2008);
Belligerents
Iraqi Army; United States; United Kingdom; Awakening Councils; Badr Brigades	Mahdi Army; Special Groups; Fadhila Militia
Commanders and leaders
Nouri al-Maliki; Mohan al-Furayji; David Petraeus; Hadi al-Amiri	Muqtada al-Sadr; Akran Hasnawi †; Akram al-Kabi
Strength
400,000	60,000
Casualties and losses
35 killed ; 191 security forces killed; 1 militiaman killed ; 4 Islamic Dawa Party members killed; 2,100 deserted, defected or captured	700 killed (US Claim); 2,000+ killed (Iraqi claim)
	1,112 Iraqi civilians killed,; 2 U.S. and 2 Indian civilians killed

The 2008 Iraq spring fighting was a series of clashes between the Mahdi Army and allies and the Iraqi Army supported by coalition forces, in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad, that began with an Iraqi offensive in Basra.