Posted on 08/23/2004 9:19:12 AM PDT by TexKat
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines and Shi'ite militiamen fought fierce battles around a shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Monday in some of the heaviest fighting since the 20-day-old rebellion erupted.
At least 15 explosions, many sounding like artillery shells, rocked the area near the Imam Ali mosque, where the Mehdi Army fighters of radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have holed up in defiance of the U.S.-backed interim government.
Gunfire echoed through the alleyways near the shrine while U.S. tanks kept up their encirclement around the city's heart.
Shrapnel fell in the courtyard of the gold-domed mosque, whose outer walls have already been slightly damaged in fighting that has killed hundreds and driven oil prices to record highs.
News that Iraq's crude exports were back to normal on Monday for the first time in two weeks could calm jittery oil markets. Exports had been sharply reduced due to sabotage and threats from militants. Oil prices rose to nearly $50 a barrel last week but have since eased.
Sadr's whereabouts are unknown. Police in Najaf said they had information that he had fled to Sulaimaniya, in Kurdish northern Iraq. But Sadr's aides and local government officials in Sulaimaniya denied the report.
FRUITLESS TALKS
Overnight, a U.S. AC-130 gunship blasted rebel positions after a weekend of fruitless talks between Sadr's aides and religious authorities to hand over the keys of the shrine to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most respected Shi'ite cleric.
In an apparent relaxation of Sadr's demand that the Mehdi Army guard the mosque even once it is handed over, a top Sadr aide said Shi'ite authorities would be responsible.
"The religious establishment will be in charge of security and they should have their own security force," said Sheikh Ahmed al-Sheibani, also a Mehdi militia commander.
Speaking to reporters inside the mosque, Sheibani said the cleric's fighters would become "normal citizens" if U.S. forces returned to their bases and the southern city became stable.
The uprising is a brazen challenge to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who took over from U.S.-led occupiers two months ago and faces the daunting prospect of getting Iraq ready for elections in January.
His government has tried to defuse the crisis with a mix of threats to storm the shrine and peace offerings.
Sadr, the face of Shi'ite resistance in Iraq, has at times appeared to accept the government's demands only to spurn them later. Allawi has insisted Sadr disarm his militia and take his grievances to the political arena.
Serious damage to the Najaf mosque could enrage millions of Shi'ites and fuel hostility to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Sadr had insisted Sistani send a delegation to take an inventory of precious items in the mosque before it was handed over. Sheibani said that was no longer necessary.
Sistani, who usually lives in Najaf, is in London recovering from surgery. An aide said his offer to mediate the crisis by receiving the shrine's keys remained in place.
READY TO FIGHT FOR MONTHS
The rebellion has also triggered violence in seven other southern and central cities, including Baghdad. Hospital officials said four Iraqis were killed in fighting in the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City in Baghdad on Monday.
There appeared to be fewer militia along the alleys leading to the shrine on Monday than on previous days. But Sheibani said fighters were being rotated.
Militants said they had enough food, water and ammunition to last for weeks, maybe months.
"We are here to kill and we have enough stamina," said Hamed Khudayir, 54, referring to himself and his 10-year-old son Ali.
In fresh attempts to force foreign firms to leave Iraq, a Turkish contractor and two Iraqis who worked for a construction company were killed when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the northern city of Tikrit, the U.S. military said.
An Indonesian worker was killed and a Filipino wounded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday. The U.S. military said five of its troops were killed at the weekend.
We have no credibility as a military anymore.
We need to point at a couple of smaller shrines and level them.
Then we can point at the big shrine and grin sadistically. The Iraqis should be able to connect the dots.
And this after they took Baghdad in about three weeks.
Yours is by far the most ridiculous post I've seen in at least a week. Congratulations.
> We need to point at a couple of smaller shrines and level them.
Won't help with the neo-Thugees.
This is not a rational enemy.
Save the dome or level it, they
figure that they win either way.
So we might as well at least wipe them out.
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Crack is wack.
That's nonsense.
hey my holy shrine was the WTC (not really)but you get my drift---f--k em
Not ridiculous.
Think about it. We can take and destroy any military target or objective we point at...
Except the credibility of our military falls apart when we are faced with a religious shrine.
We sit around for two weeks outside of a mosque and we wait for politicians to make up their minds.
We threaten, and threaten, and threaten... But as of yet, we have yet to deal with the mosque as it is... A military target.
So the next time we are faced with a mosque, the enemy will expect us to sit around outside and wait. That is the root of a military's credibility... the belief among the enemy that we will come and get them whenever we know where they are.
Well, now we know where they are... And they know we aren't coming.
Which, if you read the rest of post instead of reacting like you did, you'll see that I state that if we point at several lesser shrines, then level them... If we then point at this shrine... They'll know they aren't safe anymore and then we can deal with them from a position of strength.
In other words, our military is viewed as an empty threat by the enemy who occupy the mosque. That's a lack of credibility.
Now, who knows... We might just move in and put an end to it. That will restore our credibility. But until then... we're kind of stuck having the best military in the world that can't get to the enemy sitting right in front of us.
Uh huh, what are you, 15 years old...or Eurotrash (not much difference, really)?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
The only time we'll actually know how this complicated situation is being executed is when the history is written.
Don't be so simple minded as to think all we have to do is blow up a large shrine.
Southack... read the rest of my post before you open you type.
your right in this situation it pays to take it slow and do the "coorect" thingbut if there ever is another 9/11 or worse(dirty bomb or suitcase nuke) you go right for the head of the snake--MECCA
If by "we" you mean the Iraqi government.
Child, when you type that the U.S. military has no credibility, nothing else that you say is worth my time.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Can any you even see the humor in my post?
"point and smile sadistically..."
The entire post is about how the enemy thinks they can get away with hiding in a mosque. They wouldn't think that if we stopped caring about what people will think.
A mosque that is being used as a military staging base for the enemy isn't a mosque anymore. It is a military target.
I'll admit that there are political considerations, but those political considerations don't seem to be effective at winning.
The credibility of our military rests on the fact the enemy knows we can get them. When they can sit in a mosque and taunt us, our credibility from their point is destroyed, and that is the credibility that matters in war.
There is national credibility as well. And that is damaged when the type of political campaign that John Kerry is running undermines the mission with the attacks on our President's credibility.
Grow up people. These are real issues in regards to our military, the mission, and our strength as a nation.
Purest horse crap.
"Yours is by far the most ridiculous post I've seen in at least a week. Congratulations."
Being overwhelming is not the same thing as credibility.
I find your post to be the most ridiculous if you cannot differentiate between "terrific" and "credibility."
One can have the most dominating military in the universe but still lack credibility.
I don't know who is making the decisions in Iraq but whoever it is making the decisions IS destroying the U.S. military credibility despite the fact that they are overwhelming.
Meanwhile killing hundreds of Sadr's best and brightest, while normal Iraqis a) cheer about it, and b) wish Sadr's goons would get the hell out.
That works swell for me. It would work swell for you, too, if you didn't have a Hackworth complex.
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