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Najaf Sees Worst Fighting Since 2003
AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/6/04 | Abdul Hussein el-Obeidi - AP

Posted on 08/06/2004 1:57:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Iraqi insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery Friday in the most intense fighting in this Shiite holy city since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). The U.S. military said 300 militants were killed in the past two days.

The clashes between coalition forces and militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army flared in Shiite communities across the country, killing dozens of other Iraqis, according to Iraqi officials and the militants.

The fighting threatened to re-ignite the bloody, two-month Shiite insurrection that broke out in April — and the heavy U.S. response appeared designed to quash militia activity quickly and prevent a repeat.

Al-Sadr on Friday blamed all the violence in Iraq (news - web sites) on the United States, which he called "our enemy and the enemy of the people," in a sermon read on his behalf at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf.

A renewed uprising among the country's majority Shiites would cause severe problems for Iraq's fledgling interim government as it tries to gain popular support and for coalition forces that are already struggling against Sunni militants.

The Iraqi government said it was determined to crush all militias in the country, including the Mahdi Army, and Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi gave the insurgents 24 hours to leave the city.

"We believe that the end of the military operations is dependent on the exit of the armed militias from Najaf," he told reporters.

The Mahdi Army has proved difficult to put down in the past. It persisted despite heavy casualties during its first uprising, and U.S. commanders — hesitant to carry out a full-fledged assault in the holiest Shiite city — were forced to back down from vows to uproot the militia. A series of truces finally brought calm in June.

Intense pre-dawn clashes hit Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, where 20 people were killed and 114 wounded during two days of fighting, the Health Ministry said. Separate attacks blamed on al-Sadr's followers wounded 15 American soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.

Amid the violence, which began early Thursday, al-Sadr's aides called for a return to the truce and asked for the United Nations (news - web sites) and the government to step in.

"We call upon the government — that has announced that it is sovereign — to intervene to stop the American attacks," said Mahmoud al-Sudani, an al-Sadr spokesman.

Shiite leaders said they were working to restore the cease-fire.

"We are sparing no effort to reach a peaceful settlement by opening a direct dialogue between Muqtada al-Sadr's representatives on the one hand and the transitional government on the other," Ammar al-Hakeem, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a top Shiite political faction, told Al-Jazeera television.

The fighting on Friday dwarfed the clashes seen in the spring, residents said. Two U.S. Marines and an American soldier were killed in Najaf on Thursday, and 12 troops were wounded, the military said. The two days of fighting in Najaf also killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 58 others, according to hospital officials.

Gunfire and explosions rocked Najaf on Friday as helicopters flew overhead. The streets were nearly deserted, shops were closed, and some residents near the cemetery fled with their belongings on carts. A dead woman lay abandoned on an empty sidewalk, Associated Press Television News footage showed.

Fire tore through a nearby outdoor market and smoke rose from several parts of the city.

U.S. Marines chased the militants into the massive cemetery, which the militants had been using as a base, military officials said. Helicopter gunships slammed insurgent positions in the cemetery, and Marines were sent in to root out militiamen, the military said.

The insurgents have taken advantage of the cemetery's location in the so-called Exclusion Zone — where U.S. forces were forbidden under the truces — to use as a base for attacks and a weapons storage site, said Lt. Col. Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

After the militiamen attacked a police station from the cemetery early Thursday, the U.S. military retaliated, he said.

U.S. Col. Anthony Haslam, chief of operations in Najaf, said 300 militants out of a total force of about 2,000 had been killed in Najaf since Thursday.

There was no independent confirmation of that number, which would be among the largest militant death tolls in a single engagement since the end of the war last year. The militiamen, who have their own clinics, rarely take their dead or wounded to city hospitals.

Ahmed al-Shaibany, an al-Sadr aide in Najaf, said only nine militants were killed and 20 injured in the city.

Al-Zurufi, the Najaf governor, estimated 400 militants were killed and 1,000 arrested. He also said 80 of the fighters at the cemetery were Iranian. "There is Iranian support to al-Sadr's group and this is no secret," he said.

Guerrillas attacked a convoy of U.S. Humvees at dawn in the city of Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital, witnesses said, and U.S. helicopters responded with rockets at insurgent positions. At least two people were killed and 16 injured during the fighting, said Ahmed Jadou'a, an official at Samarra Hospital. Two houses were also destroyed.

In southern Iraq, British troops backed by tanks fought with al-Sadr militiamen who seized four police stations on the outskirts of Amarah. The troops secured the main police station, said Maj. Ian Clooney, a British military spokesman. It was not clear if they recaptured the others.

In Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops early Friday with automatic weapons and targeted a police station, an Italian military spokesman said. Eight Iraqis, including five militants, were killed, and 13 were wounded, according to Abdul Khuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official. There were no coalition casualties, the Italian spokesman said.

Insurgents also attacked a Romanian patrol outside Nasiriyah with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, said Gelaledin Nezir, the Romanian Defense Ministry spokesman. No injuries were reported.

Assailants also attacked a police station and City Hall in the southern city of Basra, wounding three police and five civilians, police and hospital officials said.

Violence in Basra since Thursday killed five al-Sadr fighters, said As'ad al-Basri, an al-Sadr official in the city.

Also Friday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said four Lebanese truck drivers had been taken hostage in Iraq as they drove from Baghdad to Ramadi.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 11thmeu; 2003; fighting; insurgents; iranian; iraq; marines; militants; najaf; since; terrorists; worst
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U.S. Marines chased the militants into the massive cemetery, which the militants had been using as a base, military officials said. Helicopter gunships slammed insurgent positions in the cemetery, and Marines were sent in to root out militiamen, the military said.

The insurgents have taken advantage of the cemetery's location in the so-called Exclusion Zone — where U.S. forces were forbidden under the truces — to use as a base for attacks and a weapons storage site, said Lt. Col. Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

After the militiamen attacked a police station from the cemetery early Thursday, the U.S. military retaliated, he said.

U.S. Col. Anthony Haslam, chief of operations in Najaf, said 300 militants out of a total force of about 2,000 had been killed in Najaf since Thursday.

There was no independent confirmation of that number, which would be among the largest militant death tolls in a single engagement since the end of the war last year. The militiamen, who have their own clinics, rarely take their dead or wounded to city hospitals.

Ahmed al-Shaibany, an al-Sadr aide in Najaf, said only nine militants were killed and 20 injured in the city.

Al-Zurufi, the Najaf governor, estimated 400 militants were killed and 1,000 arrested. He also said 80 of the fighters at the cemetery were Iranian. "There is Iranian support to al-Sadr's group and this is no secret," he said.

1 posted on 08/06/2004 1:57:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

AP fyi


2 posted on 08/06/2004 1:57:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge

queue Tommy Daschle .. :-\ lol


3 posted on 08/06/2004 1:58:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge

Bad headline. It should read: Najaf sees BEST fighting since 2003


4 posted on 08/06/2004 2:00:19 PM PDT by cinnathepoet (Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral)
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To: NormsRevenge
U.S. Marines chased the militants into the massive cemetery, which the militants had been using as a base, military officials said. Helicopter gunships slammed insurgent positions in the cemetery, and Marines were sent in to root out militiamen, the military said.

This is important. The cemetery had always been "off limits". It became a haven for fighters and munitions. Now it's not and we are sending the Marines in to root them out. Good.

5 posted on 08/06/2004 2:02:04 PM PDT by saquin
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To: NormsRevenge; TexKat; Ragtime Cowgirl; saquin; Dog; Coop; Cap Huff
Very good , and we have this:

More than 1,200 militiamen surrender in Najaf: police

6 posted on 08/06/2004 2:03:20 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (A Proud member of Free Republic ~~The New Face of the Fourth Estate since 1996.)
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To: NormsRevenge

No bias in this headline "Najaf Sees Worst Fighting Since 2003"

Yeah, the worst fighting for the bad guys.


7 posted on 08/06/2004 2:06:16 PM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: cinnathepoet

"Marines Kick the Most Ass In Najaf Since 2003"


8 posted on 08/06/2004 2:07:15 PM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: cinnathepoet
Bad headline. It should read: Najaf sees BEST fighting since 2003

I agree, and I would rewite this as well:

A renewed uprising among the country's majority Shiites would cause severe problems for Iraq's fledgling interim government as it tries to gain popular support and for coalition forces that are already struggling against Sunni militants.

"Routing Sadr's thugs by killing them by the carload would cause serious problems for the terrorist forces and assist the stabilization of the Iraqi regime"

9 posted on 08/06/2004 2:09:12 PM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Think this will make the nightly news 8-?

Americans troops take positions during clashes with al-Mahdi army fighters in a west Baghdad neighborhood in Iraq,  Friday Aug. 6, 2004. Coalition forces battled militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in several Iraqi cities Friday, saying they killed about 300 militants in Najaf over two days of fighting. Battles in other Shiite areas killed dozens more, according to Iraqi authorities. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Americans troops take positions during clashes with al-Mahdi army fighters in a west Baghdad neighborhood in Iraq (news - web sites), Friday Aug. 6, 2004. Coalition forces battled militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in several Iraqi cities Friday, saying they killed about 300 militants in Najaf over two days of fighting. Battles in other Shiite areas killed dozens more, according to Iraqi authorities. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

10 posted on 08/06/2004 2:09:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: San Jacinto

Yes. The stories have all been pretty slanted. The only problem I see is where to hold the 1200 guys who surrendered just now.


11 posted on 08/06/2004 2:11:39 PM PDT by cinnathepoet (Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral)
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To: NormsRevenge

Smoke rises over the Holy Iraqi city of Najaf as battles rage between Shi'ite militiaman and their U.S. Marine and Iraqi security forces foes in the Holy city of Najaf, August 6, 2004. U.S. marines said they had killed 300 fighters loyal to a firebrand Iraqi Shi'ite cleric in fierce clashes that pose a stern test for an interim government struggling to stamp its authority over the country. (Akram Saleh/Reuters)


12 posted on 08/06/2004 2:12:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge

May God be with our armed forces..


13 posted on 08/06/2004 2:15:34 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security)
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To: NormsRevenge

US tanks roll past a picture of leading Shiite Muslim figures, (L to R) Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Imam Ali and Mohammed Baqr al-Sadr, in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City neighborhood. At least 26 people were killed and 90 wounded during fighting pitting US troops and Iraqi security forces against Shiite Muslim militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr in their Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, medics said(AFP/Sabah Arar)


14 posted on 08/06/2004 2:16:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge
Toyota or Mazda(?) WarWagon.. Iraqi National Guardsmen on patrol

Good hunting,fellas!

Iraqi National Guardsmen are seen carrying light arms and an RPG as they ride on the back of a police vehicle during the second day of clashes with al-Sadr militants in the holy Muslim city of Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Friday Aug. 6, 2004. U.S. choppers attacked militants hiding in a cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine in the old city at Najaf's center, where smoke could be seen rising. Gunfire and explosions rang out as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi policemen advance toward the area. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

15 posted on 08/06/2004 2:20:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge
"We call upon the government — that has announced that it is sovereign — to intervene to stop the American attacks," said Mahmoud al-Sudani, an al-Sadr spokesman.

Good luck with all that, goat-breath, since the Governor is the one that called us in...
16 posted on 08/06/2004 2:20:28 PM PDT by timpad (Peace without victory is procrastination)
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To: NormsRevenge
Think this will make the nightly news 8-?

Who needs them?

:-)

We have our own news outlet...

17 posted on 08/06/2004 2:21:33 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (A Proud member of Free Republic ~~The New Face of the Fourth Estate since 1996.)
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To: NormsRevenge

British soldier mans his gun while patrolling near the port of Umm Qasr, south of Basra. More than 300 people are believed to have died in two days of heavy fighting between foreign troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen as US planes pounded the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf.(AFP/Saeed Khan)


18 posted on 08/06/2004 2:21:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option" - Colin Powell)
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To: NormsRevenge

Najaf Sees Worst Fighting Since 2003

"U.S. Col. Anthony Haslam, chief of operations in Najaf, said 300 militants out of a total force of about 2,000 had been killed in Najaf since Thursday."

I would change this to read some of the BEST fighting...


19 posted on 08/06/2004 2:23:25 PM PDT by RS (Just because they're out to get him doesn't mean he's not guilty)
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To: RS

Mighty convenient of them to stage their fight from a cemetary, I like that. Kill 'em All!


20 posted on 08/06/2004 2:24:28 PM PDT by Delbert
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