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GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and the author of “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.”

Iraq’s oil-rich southern city, Basra, has been the focus of bloody clashes this week between the Iraqi army and Shite militias affiliated with Moqtada Al Sadr. At least 55 people have been killed so far with the fight spreading to Sadr City in Baghdad. About 16,000 Iraqi police officers and 9,000 Iraqi Army troops have been deployed. Sadr’s spokesmen have called for a negotiated solution but the fighters appear to be from breakaway factions of the Mahdi army. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has given the fighters 72 hours to surrender, while Mr. Sadr has asked the PM to leave the city. People in Basra are under siege, unable to leave their homes, and with no access to water supplies. The US military has characterized the government operation in Basra as an Iraqi-led operation in which US forces are only playing an advisory role. The heavily fortified Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad has also been attacked, seriously wounding three US civilians. Meanwhile, thousands of Sadr’s supporters marched in Baghdad this morning to protest the crackdown on his followers and to call for the downfall of al-Maliki.

(We apologize for the poor quality of Steven Zunes’ phone)