U.S. Forces Renew Holy City Battles in Iraq

[ze_dscherman]

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces battled insurgents around some of the holiest Shi'ite shrines in Iraq on Saturday as international pressure built for an interim government to be given real control of military affairs.

Witnesses said at least two members of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia were killed and seven wounded in fighting near the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas in Kerbala, some of the most sacred ground in Shi'ite Islam.

In nearby Najaf, after heavy fighting Friday, at least two U.S. tanks took up position outside the main police station about two km (a mile) from the Imam Ali mosque.

Further south in Nassiriya, about 20 Italians, Americans and Britons were trapped overnight in the offices of the U.S.-backed Coalition Provisional Authority as Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen attacked with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

SNIP
http://news.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&...

The news also states that British troops came under heavy attacks, killed 20 Iraqis and captured 13.

[leftchick]

1. wtf will the US occupiers accomplish ....

if they actually capture or kill al-Sadr? This is a doomed mission for sure.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. The Iman Ali mosque was hit by US gunfire...

...according to this AP report:

<snip>
The fighting around Najaf, the most important center of Shiite theology and scholarship, unnerved the country's Shiite majority, including members who have disavowed al-Sadr and worked with U.S. authorities.

Hamid al-Bayati, spokesman for a mainstream Shiite group represented on the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, called the fighting a "big mistake" that could inflame sectarian passions. He urged both sides to mediate an end to the standoff.

<snip>
Explosions and heavy machine-gun fire rocked Najaf for hours, and bands of gunmen carrying assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar tubes roamed the city. After a lull, sporadic firing resumed as night fell.

Four holes, each approximately 12 inches long and 8 inches wide, could be seen on the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque, burial place of Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law and the Shiites' most revered saint.

The mosque, in the middle of Najaf, is about 100 miles south of Baghdad on a high desert plateau overlooking the world's largest cemetery.

Militia members blamed the Americans for the damage to the mosque, but Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said al-Sadr's men were probably responsible: "I can just tell you by the looks of where we were firing and where Muqtada's militia was firing, I would put my money that Muqtada caused it."
</snip>

It's stuff like this that'll send the rest of the Shi'as running for their guns...

Utter nitwits running the war over there (and here, for that matter)...

[dArKeR]

3. Someone please post the pic of the children stoning our soldiers!

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml ;jsessionid=HBSRK0U15CMK4CRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=5154634

you'll have to remove the space to get to the link.

Iraqi Shi'ite youths throw stones at a U.S. military convoy in the center of the most populated Shi'ite district of Al-Sadr city in Baghdad, May 15, 2004. Photo by Ali Jasim/Reuters

Bush said they would greet us with open arms!

[gottaB]

4. throwing stones

[Karenina]

5. Yup! Dey sho' be GUILTY!

Mostly of telling the *MIC, "GET OUT! GO HOME!"

[Karenina]

6. Yup! Dey sho' be GUILTY!

Mostly of telling the *MIC, "GET OUT! GO HOME!"

[gottaB]

8. I'm collecting photos of children in the Iraq war

most of them are horrific in nature because, well, war is kind of a horrific thing to inflict upon children.

Some of them are touching, though--and I mean real news photos, not from CENTCOM. (They keep a large online archive of photos showing GIs winning hearts and minds.)

Here is a mix from the recent news.

1


2


3


4





5

[Just Me]

13. Are they better off with a US occupation?

I think not.

The neocons have loosed hell on those poor children and the Iraqi people who did nothing, NOTHING to harm our country or our people.

[dArKeR]

14. Clearly see the cameras on the helmets. Are you telling me every helmet

has a wireless hookup but these easy to install cameras were NOT in every cell, hallway... in the US torture chambers? Are you (Repukes) all that stupid? 99.999% of our soldiers don't speak Arabic so how could they understand if important information was spoken? Of course it is recorded and the CIA/NSA/DOD IBM/Cray computers pick throught the data during midnight batch runs.

[PaDUer]

7. What's that GI

sitting on?

[Zhade]

9. Jesus - that could be the Occupied Territories, if one didn't know better.

This nightmare is far from over.

[dArKeR]

15. When was the last time these kids were in school?

[dArKeR]

10. Fight Vs. Cleric Reaches Baghdad - CBS

The U.S. military said Saturday it killed 18 gunmen believed loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, and jet fighters bombarded militia positions on the capital's outskirts. Skirmishes persisted in the southern holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

The U.S. military also reported the deaths of five soldiers, including three killed by rebel attacks. In northern Iraq, rebels fired a mortar round at an Iraqi army recruiting center, killing four volunteers, hospital officials said.

The coalition announced a reorganization of its military command structure Saturday, creating a new headquarters with broad responsibility for operations in Iraq, including the training of Iraqi security forces and involvement in the political transition, and another headquarters that will handle daily tactical operations against the insurgency.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main5418...

[bemildred]

11. Oh good, a new org chart, that will help. nt

[legin]

12. Damn, my nasty thought for the day

The u.s. used to have Falluja and al-Sadr going on at the same time. Probably awkward to deal with both at the same time.

Probably felt that al-Sadr was the more dangerous threat, so they put Falluja on hold, and shifted forces over to deal with al-Sadr. Once that has been completed, they will shift forces back again with reinforcements and finish off dealing with Falluja.