Karbala militia expecting US attack ("any moment now")

[Barrett808]

Tension ran high in the holy Iraqi Shi'ite city of Karbala - where wanted cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was bunkered in with supporters and surrounded by US troops.

Sadr and his supporters said mediation efforts with the US-led coalition had failed in Najaf, and they were preparing for what they believed to be an imminent US attack.

Talks halted "because the mediators have told us the Americans are putting obstacles towards finding solutions to the crisis and the situation is getting worse," Qais al-Khazaali, the head of Sadr's office, told reporters in Najaf.

"We are expecting the Americans to attack Najaf any moment now," he added.

(more)

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/18/1082226619860.html

[kalian]

1. This is going to be bad....very bad.....

[floda]

2. Karbala or Najaf?

I thought Sadr was in Najaf? B.T.W. the Spanish troops are responsible for guarding CPA HQ in Najaf. No wonder they don't want to wait any longer with withdrawal.

[alcuno]

3. I don't have a map; maybe they're like twin cities.

Minneapolis/St. Paul.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. Here's a good map...(link)

<http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/lgcolor/iqcolor.htm>

...and some additional Iraq resources...

<http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/iq.htm>

[cyclezealot]

4. They had better hurry.

For the war on Sadr. the bloodbath is very near.Can you retreat fast enough.

[Aidoneus]

7. actually, he's back in Kufah now

as of at least Friday.

AnNajaf and Karbala' are seperated by many miles of space between them. The article does seem to mix them up.

[acmavm]

6. Countdown to destruction is about to begin: ten, nine, eight, seven......

We attack Najaf, we can kiss a lot of American lives goodbye.

Jeez, we need to get the hell out of there. These people can work things out for themselves. They've got over three thousand years of history behind them. Let's just give them the money to do their own reconstruction, and go home. Civil war, who knows? Theocracy, definitely. But that's the bush* cabal's fault. And bush* does not represent the majority of the people in this country.

Let's make the draft a selective kind of thing. All those in favor of this fiasco, put a backpack on them, give them less than enough ammo, no bullet proof flak vests, and turn them loose. If they can make it out of there okay, if not, then they croaked for a cause they believed in, right?