HE SHOULD ALREADY HAVE BEEN REMOVED
What violent clashes appear to have involved Sadr supporters?
In the most intense recent clash, Sadrists and gunmen loyal to Ayatollah Sistani engaged in an 8-hour gun battle October 15 over control of two key mosques in Karbala. One man was reportedly killed; Sadr’s men were ultimately defeated.
U.S. forces have been targeted in two recent clashes with followers of clerics tied to Sadr, according to the U.S. authorities.
On October 9, two U.S. soldiers were killed in Sadr City when a protest demanding the release of an arrested cleric affiliated with Sadr, Moayed Khazraji, turned into an apparent ambush of U.S. forces. Khazraji was arrested September 29 on charges that he was hiding weapons in his mosque and organizing anti-U.S. violence.
On October 16 in Karbala, three U.S. military policemen were killed in a firefight with the personal security forces of a cleric believed to be affiliated with Sadr, Sayyid Mahmoud al-Hassani. In early September, U.S. forces had killed three of al-Hassani’s men when a protest over the coalition’s searching of the cleric’s home turned violent.
What are they waiting for?
You would think Jimmy Carter was President.