Posted on 08/06/2004 12:00:24 PM PDT by HAL9000
The Iraqi forces affirm to control the cemetery of Najaf (police force)
The Iraqi police force affirms to have taken the control of the cemetery of Najaf, fortified town of the militiamans of the radical head Moqtada Sadr Friday evening afterwards of violent one engagements implying the United States Air Force, affirmed with the AFP a person in charge for the police force with Najaf.
It was not possible to confirm this information with Najaf where the accesses of the old city and the cemetery were completely blocked by the engagements between the army of Mehdi de Moqtada Sadr on the one hand, and the American troops, Iraqi police officers and national guards of the other.
"We made a hundred prisoners among the militiamans of Moqtada Sadr and they currently flee of Najaf", ensured the captain Abou Hassan of the Iraqi police force, the eyes reddened by tiredness.
The gouvernorat of the city is protected by tens of police officers and guards national, cartridges in shoulder-belt, the finger on the relaxation of their kalachnikovs.
According to the governor of the province of Najaf Adnane Zorfi, "nearly 400 militiamans were killed with the combat in 48 hours". "We lost four police officers", it affirmed with the AFP.
The American army for its part announced 300 died in the militiamans, while the hospitals indicated to have received 15 body.
No negotiation is currently in hand with Moqtada Sadr, but there is no either warrant for arrest against him, added the young governor.
The engagements continued in Najaf at the end of day, it added, affirming that its forces gave to insurgent "the few days" before the resumption of the Holy City Shiite who shelters the mausoleum of the imam Ali, venerated by the Shiites.
The governor however admitted that the men of the army of Mehdi controlled the town of Koufa, with five kilometers from there.
The journalist of the AFP noted that powerful explosions, shootings of mortars in particular, arrived of the downtown area as of the automatic shootings of weapons.
The raids of the United States Air Force above Koufa and Najaf since the beginning of the afternoon ceased at the beginning of evening.
The situation remained tended in the part of the city close to the gouvernorat where one could observe a ceaseless ballet of cross-country cars of the police force, gyrophares lit, bringing and bringing back men towards the places of engagements.
The life continued in the neighbouring lanes, where rare stores sold basic commodities and fruits. Gasoline salesmen hastily were attacked by the cars in the search of fuel.
With fallen the night, a column of black smoke visible since the beginning of the morning, always escaped from the center of Najaf.
In the zone between Najaf and Koufa, at the beginning of morning, of the militiamans favorable to the leader radical Shiite tried to take a police station, according to an inhabitant of the district Wael Hadi. But according to him, the police officers retorted and pushed back the attackers.
This is excellent news. The cemetary is the size of a small town and a virtual rabbit warren of terrorist positions. If the Iraqis have gained control of it, they have eliminated the central bastian of the MM.
Must be a liberal!?
I wonder what the body count was...
You must not know babelfish.
I love babelfish translations.
IRAQ - good news Ping
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