Here's what a Shiite-militia controlled neighborhood in Iraq looks like

From today's Washington Post on the area in Baghdad controlled by the Jaish al-Mahdi, the Arabic name for the Shiite militia controlled by the pudgy, baby-faced cleric with the legendary father, Moqtada al-Sadr:

In the 10-square-mile district of West Rashid, the Mahdi Army also controls the housing market, the gas stations and the loyalty of many of the residents, according to the soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. . . Its fighters are willing and able to attack Americans with armor-piercing bombs, mortars, machine guns and grenades...

U.S. soldiers estimate that a year ago, Sunnis made up about 80 percent of the population there and Shiites 20 percent. But those numbers have now reversed, after a concerted effort to cleanse Sunnis from the area, according to U.S. military officials...

American soldiers who oversee West Rashid -- a district of about 700,000 people that includes the al-Amil, Bayaa and al-Jihad neighborhoods -- described an organized, well-financed Shiite enemy that rules ruthlessly and distributes the spoils of war to the area's impoverished residents.

"Now that the Sunnis are all gone, murders have dropped off," the battalition's intelligence commander Capt. Jay Wink was reported as saying.