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U.S. Is Tightening Grasp on Rebels Encircled in Iraq
New York Times ^ | 08/10/04 | ALEX BERENSON and JOHN F. BURNS

Posted on 08/09/2004 6:59:25 PM PDT by conservative in nyc

August 10, 2004
INSURGENCY

U.S. Is Tightening Grasp on Rebels Encircled in Iraq

By ALEX BERENSON and JOHN F. BURNS

NAJAF, Iraq, Aug. 9 - American forces besieging militiamen of a rebel cleric in a shrine and cemetery sacred to Shiite Muslims tightened their cordon on Monday, warning that the rebels had been left no way in or out. But the warnings drew an immediate riposte from the cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, who emerged from days of silence to reject demands for the militiamen to surrender.

"I will defend Najaf until the last drop of my blood," Mr. Sadr said at a news conference in the Imam Ali shrine, which has served as a stronghold for his Mahdi Army since his uprising in the spring against the foreign occupation of Iraq.

The repercussions of the latest fighting, which began in Najaf last week and quickly spread to other centers of support for Mr. Sadr, intensified when officials of the state-owned oil industry said that Iraq's largest oil fields, in the southern region around Basra, had stopped pumping oil on Monday after Mr. Sadr's militiamen had threatened to attack oil fields, refineries and pipelines. About 1.8 million barrels a day, 90 percent of Iraq's current oil exports, are shipped from terminals in and near Basra.

In Baghdad, American military officials announced a curfew of 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood, home to more than a million Shiites and, with Najaf, Mr. Sadr's greatest stronghold. The measure, the most stringent of its kind in the 16 months since the country fell to the American-led invasion, appeared aimed at regaining some control over Sadr City from Mr. Sadr's militiamen and preventing the area from being used for rocket and mortar attacks on the American military and civil headquarters.

In Najaf, Mr. Sadr used his news conference to shred efforts by Iraq's American-appointed prime minister, Ayad Allawi, to lure the cleric away from armed confrontation. Over the weekend, Dr. Allawi invited Mr. Sadr to contest parliamentary elections scheduled to take place by the end of January, and suggested that the militiamen who have fought bloody battles in Najaf and other cities might not be under his control.

Dr. Allawi's suggestion was echoed by American military spokesmen.

Brushing aside the fact that most of the rebels in Najaf, Nasiriya, Basra and Sadr City, the areas worst affected by the fighting, have worn the black trousers and shirts of Mr. Sadr's militia, the Americans have said repeatedly during the five days of renewed fighting that they, too, had doubts that the cleric was the instigator of the violence.

But some American military officers have said that this presentation of the situation was a convenient fiction, propagated by the Allawi government and the American command to allow American and Iraqi government forces to hunt down as many of Mr. Sadr's fighters as possible while exempting Mr. Sadr personally from any deliberate attack.

During the uprising by Mr. Sadr's forces in April, American commanders said they intended to kill or capture him, but that threat was dropped out of fear that any harm to the cleric could touch off a still wider conflagration among Iraq's majority Shiite population.

In any case, Mr. Sadr himself exploded any pretense that he was not the leader of the current fighting with his defiant posture at the news conference on Monday. Appearing in the mosque, only a few hundred yards from the closest American troops, he effectively mocked the Americans and the cordon they have thrown around the shrine. "I am an enemy of America, and America is my enemy until the last day of judgment," he said.

As for taking part in elections, he was similarly scornful. "The occupiers must go, and then the democratic process can start in Iraq," he said. "I will stay here to support the fighters, and I call on all religious dignitaries to do the same."

As for Dr. Allawi, Mr. Sadr said the Baghdad government should be "on the side of the people and not use the same weapons as Saddam Hussein."

The reference to Mr. Hussein, the country's ousted ruler, appeared to refer to some of the tough policies adopted by Dr. Allawi in an effort to quell the insurgency and broaden his government's tenuous popular support. On Sunday, the prime minister visited Najaf and vowed that there would be "no negotiations" with the Sadr militiamen in Najaf, then returned to Baghdad and said his government was restoring the death penalty for a range of crimes that appeared to cover almost any insurgent activity.

Mr. Sadr's defiance posed a seemingly insoluble quandary for the American command, similar to the one it faced when Mr. Sadr's fighters seized control of Najaf in April. Then, the United States commanders settled for a shaky truce that kept American forces on the outskirts of the city in return for Mr. Sadr's promise that his fighters would disarm and hand control of the city back to Iraqi authorities. The deal was similar in outline to one made in the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, and provided a template for a wider American policy that effectively kept United States forces out of cities with a strong rebel presence, with the hope of lowering American casualties and providing breathing space for political negotiations.

The terms of the Najaf truce were never fully put in place, and Mr. Sadr's fighters continued to control large parts of the city, and the holy sites. Then, last Thursday, after increasingly bloody clashes around the city's government buildings, and an incident in which Iraqi units surrounded Mr. Sadr's headquarters, the cease-fire imploded. According to the United States command, Mr. Sadr's men attacked a police station, prompting the Najaf governor to call in help from an American quick-reaction force.

Now, American commanders in Najaf are essentially back where they were in the spring, but with their forces even deeper into the city. The difference is that an Iraqi government has replaced the American occupation authority, and American commanders are saying that their actions will be decided by Dr. Allawi's government. In practice, though, any American assault that further endangered the holy sites, even if Dr. Allawi approved it, would pose big political risks.

The new political situation has so far emboldened the Americans that units of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Army's Fifth Cavalry Division have battled for the past days in and around the huge cemetery that has been used for a millennium by devout Shiites eager to rest in eternity near the shrine and burial place of Imam Ali, the most sacred figure in Shiite Islam. Spokesmen for the United States command say they have explicit authority from Dr. Allawi to enter the cemetery, where they claim to have killed more than 360 rebel fighters, and even to advance on the shrine itself, if that proves necessary to dislodge the rebels.

A senior military official who briefed reporters in Baghdad on Monday said the command would wait for a few days to see how the rebels responded to the encirclement of the mosque.

"We have the area basically contained so the fighters who are there cannot get support from outside," he said. "There are no routes in, no routes out." But he also hinted that an assault on the shrine had not been ruled out.

"We are around the shrine, but at the moment we are not conducting operations in that area," he said. "But we are ready to do so at a moment's notice."

The spokesman laid down a possible rationale for an assault, saying that the rebels had used the shrine and the cemetery to stockpile arms and ammunition, and fighting from behind tombs and headstones. Earlier in the fighting, Marine officers said their units had taken mortar, rocket and rifle fire from the mosque.

All of this, the American spokesman said, stripped the shrine of protection under the Geneva Conventions. "The use of that site makes it a legitimate target under international law," he said.

At an American base on the outskirts of Najaf, American troops appeared to be preparing for a renewed assault into the city. Army and Marine planners said they were examining ways of using Iraqi forces to clear the rebels from the shrine. But this, too, would carry special hazards, a political one for the Allawi government and a military one for the Americans, because American-trained Iraqi units have yet to prove that they will fight effectively without American troops alongside them.

The command in Baghdad said that cumulative American losses in the fighting by noon Monday included four Marines and soldiers killed, and 19 wounded.

Alex Berenson reported from Najaf for this article and John F. Burns from Baghdad.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iraq; johnfburns; najaf; sadr; slimes; waronterror
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Sadr's not in custody yet, according to this New York Times article. He's giving press conferences inside a shrine. Why won't the wimp stop hiding in holy places and fight like a man, if he really belives that Allah is on his side?
1 posted on 08/09/2004 6:59:26 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
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To: conservative in nyc

If he lives to fight another day I vote for Kerry. Lack of urgency seems to be a Bush trait.


2 posted on 08/09/2004 7:04:09 PM PDT by samadams2000 ("Did they get you to trade, your heroes for ghosts")
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To: conservative in nyc
Mr. Sadr's defiance posed a seemingly insoluble quandary for the American command...

Oh, it's nothing that a little jacketed hollowpoint wouldn't solve very nicely, thank you...

3 posted on 08/09/2004 7:07:04 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: conservative in nyc
"I will defend Najaf until the last drop of my blood," Mr. Sadr said at a news conference in the Imam Ali shrine

Sounds like a plan to me!

4 posted on 08/09/2004 7:10:27 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Many will kill for socialism, few will die for it.)
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To: samadams2000
Take a close look at that monkey!

He really needs dental work.

Fix his teeth and he will be a happier fellow.

5 posted on 08/09/2004 7:12:00 PM PDT by CROSSHIGHWAYMAN (I don't believe anything a Democrat says. Bill Clinton set the standard!)
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To: samadams2000
"If he lives to fight another day I vote for Kerry. Lack of urgency seems to be a Bush trait. "

You want to make him a martyr? Why? He's trapped. Muslims don't withstand sieges very well. Make him crawl on his belly begging for mercy. Show him to be a coward afraid to die for Allah.

6 posted on 08/09/2004 7:15:08 PM PDT by bayourod (I resent Kerry telling me that his values, not mine are the only true American values.)
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To: conservative in nyc

squeeze 'em like a pimple! POP GOES THE WEASELLLLL...


7 posted on 08/09/2004 7:17:30 PM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1/5 1st Mar Div. Nam 69&70 Semper Fi http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com)
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To: samadams2000

Thanks samadams2000. Vote for Kerry and enjoy some real urgency.


8 posted on 08/09/2004 7:19:36 PM PDT by zarf
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To: samadams2000

Wow. what is about Kerry that makes you believe he'll be more urgent? His Deaniac supporters? His vote against funding the troops, his vote against Desrt Storm? His votes against the Abrams tank, the Bradley, and the Apache?
Wow.
You're either a troll or lack something other than urgency, like logical thought.


9 posted on 08/09/2004 7:20:18 PM PDT by don'tbedenied
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To: Jim Noble

Give Sodder his wish and quickly! He is single handedly disrupting the rebuilding progess by instigating resistance.!

lock and load!


10 posted on 08/09/2004 7:41:29 PM PDT by o_zarkman44
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To: conservative in nyc

I wish the US could toss a few of those "concussion grenade"
things, (like they use on COPS for a drug bust,etc,) say at around 2-3am. The grenades would probably accoustic wise,sound a WHOLE LOT WORSE in a mosque than they normally would (in a regular house or appartment) due to the nice LARGE stone and window interior.

There would be less chance of "holy site" damage, (unless it fell into one of the "freedom-fighters' weapons piles,)
and I would like to see the "film footage"(like on COPS) after our troops did it.

I would BUY that video in an instant, just to see what "happens" afterwards, and maybe the video money could be used to help the troops.


11 posted on 08/09/2004 7:41:43 PM PDT by musicman
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To: samadams2000
If he lives to fight another day I vote for Kerry.

Be sure to stamp your foot, pout and flounce off when you talk like that.

12 posted on 08/09/2004 7:44:25 PM PDT by martin_fierro (¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,Slipping into consciousness,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸)
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To: samadams2000
"If he lives to fight another day I vote for Kerry"

You be one stupid dude, mon ami

13 posted on 08/09/2004 7:58:09 PM PDT by jungleboy
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To: conservative in nyc
Note that both Alex and John printed this without using IRAN once. People just do not exist without money yet these people are using brand new vests. If I can see this in Kalifornia then why is it not noted. Iran is in this knee deep. There are many things going on that we just don't see. They want access like CNN had for several years so they don't burn their friends.
14 posted on 08/09/2004 9:03:54 PM PDT by Domangart
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To: conservative in nyc

We need to step on these cockroaches without mercy and without prejudice. Send a missle into that "shrine", NOW.


15 posted on 08/09/2004 9:06:20 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: conservative in nyc
"...the Army's Fifth Cavalry Division"

I know they are just reporters, but this new formation they have identified, the "5th Cavalry Division" I am completely unaware of at this time... The US Army does have a 1st Cavalry Division which has component battalions of the 5th Cavalry Regiment, but who am I to correct a reporter of the New York Times...

dvwjr

16 posted on 08/09/2004 11:37:03 PM PDT by dvwjr
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To: zarf

Just venting some anger. I cant believe we didnt roll these pirates a year ago. Standard government playbook. Half assed and way late. I want the place leveled and I want it leveled today. Allowing him to regroup and stay alive cost us what 12 soldiers?


17 posted on 08/10/2004 11:07:40 AM PDT by samadams2000 ("Did they get you to trade, your heroes for ghosts")
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To: conservative in nyc

al Sadr wants to fight till his death ... I say let's accomodate him, and the rest of his merry little band.


18 posted on 08/10/2004 11:08:47 AM PDT by mgc1122
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To: samadams2000
I vote for Kerry

Every time there is a new Admin it takes a year for the civil servants to get things running again. During that time China, N Kor, and Iran may begin their attack and we don't know how Kerry will respond if at all.

19 posted on 08/10/2004 11:13:19 AM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and establish property rights)
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To: samadams2000

You think Kerry's going to do better? Heck, he'll probably have al Sadr giving the invocation at his inauguration.


20 posted on 08/10/2004 11:15:31 AM PDT by livius
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