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.
Another victim of Moscow's "capitalist bomb" propaganda...
A neutron warhead has a yield equal to about 1,500 tons of high explosive. You'd leave a rather large crater in the middle of Najaf.
I know exactly what you are talking about with the "Nuke Mecca/Medina/Tehran/Damascus" bunch.
I usually stop reading threads after the first "Nuke 'em" post. It seems that this is the point that any given thread jumps the shark. I have read on beyond the first "Nuke 'em" post in the past, though (but only if it seemed there was hope that the thread was drifting back to a more rational exchange).
Of course, we can do no wrong.
Funny how people around here bash the French appeasers, and then bash people that point out American appeasement.
If you're going to fight a war, fight all out (like WWII).
Don't fight half-assed (Like Korea, Vietnam and Gulf War I, when we "suspended" operations as well.)
0 for 2. I did not read all the details of the article. I did not have to read them. Our actions/inactions speak louder than words.
With all due respect, I realise that as we are not there we cannon make a competent assessment of the situation. But from past episodes, not just with this particular criminal element but with others of his ilk, one can draw a reasonable conclusion as to the aftereffects of giving quarter to those that deserve NONE.
My former Army Division from years back is in the middle of this stuff. Its not going to end till full victory is achieved.
I suspect what is being negotiated is a surrender or die scenario. No way they pull back now. They have them surrounded. Blast them out, starve them out, or let them surrender. In any case, it all ends here.
Dane, You seem to be the all-defender of Bush's policies. You really think these cease fires are a great idea?... part of some master strategy?
More "strategery" from those who brought you the miracle in Fallujah. Mr. President, let our troops fight - or - pull them out of Iraq!
I am not a military expert and don't as others on FR proclaim to be one either.
I will trust the Military commanders, not keyboard commandos.
Well it's either their country and we leave or we have final say in the actions of our troops. Which is it? There is no way Allawi should have control over the movements and actions of US troops.
Not again!
The only thing that will gain respect in Iraq (and bring home the troops) is force.
The insurgents must be crushed completely, compelled to surrender.
Otherwise, we'll see a replay of the fighting in six months.
I'm not a military commander either, but I'm not saying how they should attack. If there is a vile cleric causing havoc, most people would know enough to remove him, instead of negotiating, which is what we are doing.
Your two sentences above contradict each other. Almost sounds like you are doing an impression of kerry, IMO.
Politics... Diplomacy...
Dare I say It ? ... ... Sensitivity ... ...
Such tactics have been a mistake from the start..
They only encourage militants to play the game...
Sadly, it is too late now, to act decisively, with dispatch and resolve..
A pattern has evolved, and the Jihadists will play it to the hilt, much to our disadvantage..
I’m not saying that they should attack from the flank. Specifically where and how to attack, is the job of military commanders. The right of people and pundits is to say whether we should attack at all. I’m saying they should attack.
It doesn’t really require an extensive military knowledge to understand a person like Sadr, and that letting him go will only allow him to attack again. It doesn’t take General Patton to realize that since Sadr is already a murderer and terrorist and there is no way he is suddenly going to become compassionate and peaceful through a ceasefire.
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