Raid on Mosque Sparks Battles in Baghdad (AP)

[Career Prole]

Last week's U.S.-Iraqi raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque — one of the most revered shrines for Sunni Muslims — sparked street battles, assassinations and a rash of bombings.

The chaos has fanned sectarian tension and deepened Sunni distrust of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite installed by the Americans five months ago. It has also heightened the anxiety of the city's 6 million people — already worn down by years of sanctions and tyranny, then war, military occupation, crime and deprivation.

"Baghdad is now a battlefield and we are in the middle of it," said Qasim al-Sabti, an artist who kept his children home from school Saturday, which is a work day in Iraq. When he sent his children back to school Sunday, the teachers didn't show up...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20041121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_frontline_baghdad

Better by the day...

[Javaman]

1. Once upon a time...

The military only attacked the mosques when they thought they were being fired upon from them. Then they only sent in Iraqi forces.
Well, the Iraqi forces have since proven to be useless. And the military no longer waits to be fired upon from them. They now just assume they are hiding places for the rebels.
These war has taken a very ugly turn, one that will have long term, very long term repercussions.
We have now entered into a new phase of battle. It's one thing to repress a population, kill civilians, and use banned ordinance, but it's an entirely different matter when we start destroying their places of worship.
In a land that values it's religion as much as life itself, we are opening a Pandora's box with this new tactic.

[mom cat]

2. This will be remembered long after the "Crusades" are forgotten.

I wonder if the ajenda is to spark World War Three. Either Bushco is dumber than dirt or it is as evil as Hitler..

[asjr]

3. Who knows? Things change from day to day in this

administration and tomorrow may bring something more evil.

[Lerkfish]

21. the two are not mutually exclusive.

[Voltaire99]

24. Can it not be both? (n/t)

[Career Prole]

4. What I find equally disturbing is the way the violence jumps around Iraq.

Samarra...Fallujah...Samarra again...Mosul...back to Baghdad...
These "pockets of insurgents" are either highly mobile (which is highly unlikely), or the resistance is numerous, widespread and gaining in popularity, well-armed, and well-orchestrated.
This is turning into a shitstorm rather quickly, and the administration is whistling past the graveyard.

[lawladyprof]

6. We opened Pandora's box in March 2003-eom

[VegasWolf]

8. No shit! n/t

[Javaman]

10. true

[Voltaire99]

25. "Oderint dum metuant"

These scorched earth tactics don't bode well for any vision of a democratic Iraq that looks kindly upon the U.S.

But that isn't the plan, anyway.

No, we can see, instead, that the U.S. intends to install a new variation upon its old theme of client despots--a type of Shah who will ensure that the oil is pumped, Israel flattered, U.S. forces harbored, dissent mercilessly crushed.

I expect, as you seem to do, that this will backfire spectacularly.

[0007]

5. I thought they broke the backs of those Iraqi freedom fighters?

" Lt. Col. James Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is in charge of security in Baghdad, acknowledged that there has been an increase in insurgent activity in the capital.

But he linked the increase to the fighting in Fallujah, where U.S. troops are still fighting pockets of resistance after recapturing the city last week, rather than the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque.

[hatrack]

11. They're putting up a good fight for for guys with spinal cord damage

Whack-A-Mole, Version 223.98.

[Career Prole]

14. Quick healers, those Iraqis!

And I thought wheelchair basketball looked tough.

[Barkley]

7. Did Saddam kill Iraqis in mosques?

I don't think even Sharon has tried that one?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Did Saddam kill Iraqis in mosques?

Christian churches were safe in Iraq back in the day.... no more.

[leftchick]

9. allawi "installed"....

not bad for an AP reporter!

[Career Prole]

15. Hey, good eye!

That one slipped right by me!

[aneerkoinos]

13. Resistance controls 60% of Fallujah

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Militant groups in battle-torn Fallujah have controlled 60 percent of the central Iraqi city and surrounded dozens of US Marines in Jolan district,witnesses said Sunday.

"Defenders of the city are controlling 60 percent of the city and they are encircling dozens of US soldiers in Jolan neighborhood," eyewitnesses who managed to sneak out of the city told Xinhua.

Residents of Fallujah said the southern part of Fallujah, whichis still under control of the militant groups, constitutes the larger part of the city, and US troops only control the north andsmall eastern spots in the city.

"Some American troops are based in government buildings and the yare pounded by fighters," they said.

more
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/22/content_2244288.htm

[against all enemies]

16. Has there been any stories concerning the Sunni clerics in Saudi

Arabia after the killings in the mosques? During the invasion of Falluja, the clerics in Saudi Arabia called for a jihad against the Americans. After our killing worshipers I would imagine they are even more anti-American. The press always compares the 20% Sunni to the 60% Shiite in Iraq, it always fails to mention the millions of non-Iraqi Sunnis in the region. How have they responded?

[Career Prole]

17. If trouble is stirring I guarantee

you'll hear it here long before you'll hear it on the news.
Juan Cole's "Informed Comment"...I recommend it highly. :thumbsup:

[frictionlessO]

18. Juan Cole is the best, been reading hime for 6 months and he

calls thinsg out way before the media understands what is happening. Hes also extremely credible in regards to his knowledge and methods. Not to be light in a dark thread but Juan Rocks!!:yourock:

[Career Prole]

19. It's possible there are some more insightful out there...

...but they're not talking. Juan does indeed rock. :D

[leftchick]

20. thanks for the link!

I have forgotten to read juan since all of the election mess. He is the best!

[Igel]

22. The Saudi government

said the usual. Avoid extremism; the 26 clerics don't represent real Islam. Yada-yada.

And the Shiites are aware of the Sunnis, and vice-versa. Saudi Arabia's well aware that some of their most oil-rich areas have a Shia majority. And the Shias are aware the Samarra used to be Shia majority, and Falluja, Salafi-central in Iraq, was the base for a slaughter in Najaf a couple of hundred years ago.

[Igel]

23. Why

is the Hanifa mosque so revered? I don't think I caught that bit of information in any of the reports.