U.S. Switches Tactic in Najaf, Trying Isolation

[Rose Siding]

Published: August 13, 2004
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 12 - Faced with a populist Shiite cleric who has bunkered a heavily-armed militia force in the sect's holiest shrine, American commanders in this city of 500,000 resorted reluctantly on Thursday to a scaled-down objective, throwing a wide cordon of troops and armor around the city's heart and announcing that they planned to "further isolate" the militiamen.

Only days after the new Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, flew into Najaf on an American military helicopter and announced that there would be "no negotiations or truce," he and the American officials in Baghdad who are his indispensable partners in power appear, for now, to have backed away from a showdown. Instead, they are pursuing a combination of negotiations and a tightening blockade around the mosque.

Raising the morale of the militiamen, loyalists of the cleric, Moktada al- Sadr, have spread their insurrection across central and southern Iraq, the country's Shiite heartland.

His militiamen have attacked in Sadr City, the slum on the outskirts of Baghdad, as well as in Diwaniya, Kut, Al-Haie, Nasiriya, Amara and Basra, towns that are among the largest Shiite population centers, each of them a way station for American and British troops in the invasion 16 months ago that toppled Saddam Hussein.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/13/international/middleeast/13iraq.html

[Domitan]

1. Masada, here we come again!

Remember what happened when the Romans beseiged the Jews who settled on the Masada plateau?

[Webster Green]

2. Right, starve 'em out......

And shoot a few hundred men, women and children while they're waiting.

Just for kicks!

[yellowcanine]

3. There seems to be no coherent battle plan. This battle is a microcosm of

the whole war. When the "trap" is finally sprung what will we have caught?

[bpilgrim]

4. sitting ducks

i thought the iraq's were fighting the battle and we were just there for backup :argh:

peace

[benburch]

5. This could be more like Stalingrad than Masada.

We are spread too thin to fully encircle the city for long. Supplies will leak in.

[Rose Siding]

7. 3,000 Americans

in a city of half a million. Not all of them will fight, of course, but it the plan doesn't seem too sound.

[Dancing_Dave]

8. Sometimes a Masada IS a Stalingrad

The "army" of Sadr in Najaf is very young and ready to be martyred. Already, hundreds of them have been. But here is how we win the battle and lose the war. They will inspire others to fight on and on.

BTW, your history is pretty impressive, indeed the U.S. has dangerously overstreached "supply lines in Iraq", especially insofar as the southern part of the country is barely "defended" by the rapidly dwindling "coalition of the willing". There are a lot of forces exploding in Iraq now, it's not all al-Sadr, and it's the U.S. and their puppets in Bagdad who are really being isolated.

Why is it that media so easily fall for lies about "it's just some al-Qaeda", "It's just the fanatic al-Sadr"?

More countries will pull out after the repercussions of this. By Christmas the U.S. may have no foreign allies left fighting an unpopular war with us in Iraq.

[daleo]

9. After the torture and sexual humiliation meted out to prisoners

These militiamen might understandably prefer fighting to the death to surrender. Another reason that episode was not only immoral, but stupid to boot.

[Rose Siding]

6. Here's Knight Ridder on this

Iraq's "president", "vp" and other Shiite leaders are at odds with Allawi over this offensive.


U.S. vows to `finish' al-Sadr's militia, postpones offensive in Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. Marines in the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday postponed a major offensive but promised action that would "finish" the militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr's men responded in kind, setting up checkpoints on the edge of Najaf, where they walked around openly with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

In Baghdad, American tanks and Humvees blockaded large sections of the Sadr City district in what looked to be a prelude to a showdown with al-Sadr's forces. The Mahdi Army militia, named after the Shiite messiah, continued digging in, fortifying positions in Sadr City with roadside bombs while flooding into the Shiite neighborhood of Khadamiya, where shops closed down and the streets were empty except for al-Sadr's forces.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9374833.htm