Posted on 08/13/2004 3:49:58 AM PDT by Barney Gumble
NAJAF, Iraq - Iraqi officials and aides to a radical Shiite cleric were trying to negotiate an end to nine days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf on Friday, after U.S. forces suspended an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, officials said. Aides said al-Sadr had been wounded by shrapnel.
In the southern city of Basra, gunmen seized a British journalist, identified as James Brandon, from a hotel where he was staying late Thursday night, police said Friday. The kidnappers threatened to kill him in 24 hours unless coalition forces withdraw from Najaf, though it wasn't clear when that deadline would expire.
Also Friday,
With the talks ongoing, the U.S. military said Friday that it had suspended offensive operations against al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, who are holed up the city's vast cemetery and the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites to Shiite Muslims.
"We are allowed to engage the enemy only in self defense and long enough to break contact," said Maj. Bob Pizzateli, executive officer for the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division. "That was a blanket order for everybody."
He said the militia appeared to have stopped most attacks as well, and the city appeared quieter Friday, a day after the U.S. military announced it had begun a major offensive to rout the militants.
"Hopefully the talks will go well and everything will be resolved peacefully," Pizzateli said.
Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said the talks were between Iraqi government officials and al-Sadr's representatives. National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie traveled to Najaf on Thursday. U.S. officials were not involved in the talks, al-Zurufi said.
Despite the talks, the U.S. military said it was still maintaining a cordon around the shrine, the cemetery and Najaf's old city, where the militants had taken refuge, Pizzateli said.
Al-Sadr, who has led an uprising against coalition troops for more than a week in the holy city, was hit by shrapnel in the chest and twice in a leg as he met with members of his Mahdi Army militia near the Imam Ali shrine early Friday, said aide Haider al-Tousi.
Another of al-Sadr's spokesmen said the cleric's condition was stable. He may be holed up in the compound housing the revered shrine, along with his loyalists, while one aide, Haider al-Tousi, said he was moved to an unknown destination.
Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, deputy director for operations for the coalition forces, said he could not confirm reports that al-Sadr was wounded.
"Multinational forces are operating under firm instructions not to pursue Muqtada and not to conduct operations within the exclusion zone surrounding the Imam Ali and Kufa Mosques," he said in a statement.
Al-Sadr urged his followers to remain calm.
"We got a letter from him saying 'Be steadfast and behave rationally, don't surrender to your emotions,'" Aws al-Khafaji, from al-Sadr's office in the southern town of Nasiriyah, told the Al-Jazeera Arab television.
In Basra, gunmen abducted the British journalist from the Diafa Hotel Thursday night, police Capt. Hashem Abdullah said Friday.
Hotel staff showed a check-in form purportedly filled out by the man. On the form, he identified himself as James Andrew Brandon, 23, working for the Sunday Telegraph. It said he checked in on Wednesday.
A video released Friday showed a man who identified himself as Brandon. He stood bare-chested with a bandage on his head.
The "Telegraph, that's my paper," he said, turning to a masked captor.
"I'm a journalist. I just write about what's happening in Iraq (news - web sites)," he said.
The militants, almost certainly Shiite, said they had taken Brandon hostage in protest of the U.S. military presence in Najaf.
"We are the sons of the Iraqi people," said one captor, wearing a black mask. "We demand the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the holy city of Najaf in 24 hours, otherwise we will kill this British hostage," he said, putting a hand on Brandon's shoulder.
The video was given to Associated Press Television News after a freelance cameraman was taken to the location where he's believed to be held.
Kidnappers in Iraq have seized scores of hostages in recent months, threatening to kill them in an effort to drive out coalition forces and companies that support them. Most of those kidnappers have been Sunni insurgents, and Shiites using the tactic would be a new development.
Brandon was the third journalist kidnapped in Iraq in recent months. In April, two Japanese journalists were among a group of Japanese abducted near the city of Fallujah and released unharmed.
Hotel owner Mohammed Uglah said gunmen found Brandon and shot at him after he tried to escape, hitting him across the head before taking him away. Video footage showed a trail of blood leading down a set of stairs in the hotel, but Brandon did not appear seriously hurt in the tape.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that a British national had been abducted in Basra but said it couldn't confirm the person's identity because it was still trying to contact next of kin. A Sunday Telegraph editor confirmed Brandon wrote stories for the paper.
"James Brandon was in Basra filing material for this Sunday's newspaper amongst other projects," Sunday Telegraph Deputy Editor Matthew d'Ancona said. "We are pursuing his situation with the greatest concern."
The Najaf offensive threatened to enrage Iraq's Shiite majority — especially if the fighting damages the shrine — and presented the biggest test yet for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who is trying to crush the violence plaguing the country while working to persuade Iraqis of the legitimacy of his unelected government.
Nearly 5,000 al-Sadr sympathizers had taken to the streets in Basra on Thursday, demanding U.S. troops withdraw from Najaf and condemning Allawi for working with the Americans. Several hundred Iraqis also protested in Baghdad.
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who left Najaf for London to undergo medical treatment before fighting broke out, expressed "deep sorrow and great worry" about the violence and called on all sides to end the crisis quickly. His office was working to mediate an end to the fighting, he said.
Violence across the country, much of it involving al-Sadr's fighters, has killed at least 172 Iraqis and injured 643 since Wednesday morning, the Health Ministry said.
The casualty toll from Thursday's fighting in the holy city was unclear. At least five Iraqi civilians were killed by the afternoon, said Nabil Mohammed, a health worker in the city. Two American soldiers were wounded by a mortar shell while standing in an intersection on the cemetery's edge, the military said.
The U.S. Defense Department said that about 2,200 Marines, along with 500 to 1,000 soldiers and an undisclosed number of U.S.-trained Iraqi troops, were involved in the offensive Thursday.
I'm not that upset about this "pause for negotiation" as long as our tight cordon around the shrine is maintained. The only option for those inside the cordon should be to come out with their hands up and surrender.
Any "negotiation" that leads to the cordon being loosened and the Marines pulled out of Najaf (ala Fallujah) would be unbelievably foolish and we, and the Iraqi authorities, would live to regret it.
Dammit! I thought they'd get that fat bastard this time.
Do you even pay attention to world events?
What, you don't think if that if Bush wanted to take out Al-Sadr militarily, that he somehow lacks the power? So yes, this wallowing is Bush's policies.
Ref: "Aides said al-Sadr had been wounded by shrapnel."
It sounds like he should be awarded a John Kerry "Purple Heart".
I vote for Posthumously!
RamS
The continuing triumph of hope over experience. I'm not there, and I implicitly trust those who are. God help us all if their judgment fails.
Thank you for your service, but don't you know you're not supposed to disagree with our FreeRepublic French?
We also have confidence in our Military. We have had over 30 years to smolder on the way our military was Jobbed by the politicians in Vietnam and we do not want the Politicians to do it again.
It is time to let the Marines do the Job that they are capable of doing and then get the hell out of Iraq.
RamS
Perhaps a diversion - like nuking Iran - would satisfy you.
You talkin bout me ASA?
It's not FreeRepublic French, it's the "Bush can never ever do anything wrong" crowd. "It's all part of a master plan." These are the Bush-bots.
Not this time.
Remember the Citadel in Hue City? How many US Marines died because we did not (initially) allow the use of artillery and aerial ordnance against the NVA holed up there? Instead, we sent USMC riflemen to crawl along the walls, getting picked off piecemeal because this was the "holy" or "sacred" Citadel. Well, the muslims have made this so-called "holy shrine" in the holy shithole of najaf into an armed fortress - it is now a legitimate target. I am sickened by the fact that we let the ragheads dictate our tactics. Let the Marines do the job effectively and quickly - it will save American lives in the long run.
LOL! FR french, that's funny, especially coming from the nuke everything crowd.
Golly sakes, fight to win....
Same tired line, broken record, one note samba from someone without the ability to think independently.. I proved with 7 stories from papers such as the Washington Times that that the Fallujahn ceasefire decision to not attack was imposed by Bremer and Rumsfeld, not local commanders, but you were too dense to believe it then. Said the same line, over and over.
Now you repeat this brain dead garbage in this instance. Two military analysts on Fox today agree that this decision “originated from above the military”. (That means Alawi incase that’s not clear to you.) I saw the US ambassador to Iraq on Fox as well expressing great concern with this cease fire. He was not happy with it.
We have a duty to question political decisions regarding our troops that we believe are bad, especially when they originate by Iraqis. (Yes I know, we don’t take direct orders from Iraqis. They have just been ordered to cooperate with Alawi and not act against his wishes)
But why am I bothering telling you this. You refuse to see, much less think. You can only say one thing. “armchair quarterbacking”. Polly want a cracker? “Braaaak – armchair quarterbacking.”
Ok then. I trust anyone more than you.
Happy?
Yep, that has certainly been reported as being the case and it deserves repeating.
Forgive my limitations. I have many believe me. I was once a young kid in a Marine uniform and posess EXTREME EMPHATY with those young Marines over there. Most by now have lost their girlfrieds and a few their wives. Some have lost buddies. They want finality, not repetitive/tentative mistakes that bring them closer to death, farther away from home and a leave them with a sickening feeling in their gut that nothing but Full Victory and a plane ride could cure.I am not an arnchair General Sir, I am an armchair Lance Corporal. And, after 4 years in the green machine, I earned that right. PC is the death of many military carreers. I know.
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