Posted on 08/23/2004 9:52:46 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. Forces Advance Toward Najaf Shrine
18 minutes ago
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI, Associated Press Writer
NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. forces Monday drew near Najaf's revered Shiite shrine, engaging in fierce battles with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as the military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to hand over the holy site to religious authorities.
Al-Sadr followers claimed that U.S. airstrikes overnight damaged an outer wall of the Imam Ali Shrine compound, which remains in control of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. The U.S. military said the strikes targeted militants south of the shrine who fired on U.S. troops, and that the wall was not hit. There was no independent confirmation of the damage.
Gunfire rang out in the city throughout the day, and black smoke rose over the Old City, a neighborhood of small, twisting alleyways where fighters from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army have been holed up and where the walled, golden-domed shrine is located.
Tanks approached within 250 yards of the shrine, their closest move in days, and U.S. snipers were on rooftops around the holy site, witnesses said.
U.S. commanders said their troops were responding to attacks from militiamen. "We're not doing any offensive operations. This is all in response to them," Marine Maj. Jay Antonelli said in Baghdad.
Militants hiding in a parking garage 400 yards from the shrine's outer wall fired rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles at U.S. troops, who responded with artillery and mortars, Antonelli said.
Antonelli also said militants within the shrine compound walls fired 120 mm mortars at the governor's office in Najaf. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack.
The size of the al-Sadr's forces in the Old City appeared to have decreased Monday with the U.S. advance, witnesses said. Fewer fighters were seen in the streets and some were seen leaving Najaf, residents said. Militant medical officials said at least two insurgents were killed and four others injured.
In Baghdad's heavily Shiite Sadr City neighborhood, an explosion, apparently from a U.S air attack, killed four people and injured nine others Monday, said Dr. Qasim Saddam, director of Sadr Hospital. The U.S. military said it was unaware of the incident.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, U.S. journalist Micah Garen said after his release from nine days in captivity that he hoped to stay in Iraq (news - web sites) to continue working on a documentary project on the looting of archaeological sites.
"This experience hasn't made me want to leave at all," Garen said late Sunday in an interview with Associated Press Television News. He thanked al-Sadr for helping free him.
The U.S. advance came a day after American forces sealed off the Old City as efforts that nearly reached a resolution to the standoff began to falter.
The Imam Ali Shrine, one of Shia Islam's holiest sites, has been at the center of the fighting that erupted Aug. 5. Mahdi Army militants used the shrine as a stronghold and a refuge, with U.S. forces saying they won't enter it for fear of outraging Iraq's Shiite majority.
Iraqi government officials — who days earlier said Iraqi troops might storm the shrine — were now saying they intend to resolve the crisis without an assault. Even if Iraqi security forces rather than Americans raid the shrine, it would likely turn Shiites against the new government as it tries to gain legitimacy and tackle a 16-month-old Sunni Muslim-led insurgency.
"The government will leave no stone unturned to reach a peaceful settlement," Iraqi National Security adviser Mouaffaq al-Rubaie told The Associated Press on Sunday. "It has no intention or interest in killing more people or having even the most trivial damage to the shrine. We have a vested interest in a peaceful settlement."
On Friday, insurgents agreed to turn over the shrine to representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who is receiving medical treatment in London.
But the transfer has bogged down in quibbling over technicalities. Al-Sadr's aides want the religious authorities to send a delegation to confirm that none of the shrine's treasures have been damaged or stolen.
Al-Sistani's aides say the fighting precludes that and demand al-Sadr's followers evacuate the shrine, lock the doors and turn over the keys without conditions.
Worries over the fallout have fueled calls for international action to end the Najaf fighting. Syria's prime minister, Naji al-Otari, in talks with his Jordanian counterpart Monday, warned that instability in Iraq "is about to backfire on neighboring countries" and called for Arabs and Iraq's neighbors to "help it get out of its current ordeal."
Iran has called on Muslim nations to hold an urgent meeting to deal with Iraq. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) repeated denials of claims by some Iraqi officials that his country supports al-Sadr.
"We have never taken sides in favor or against any group or faction in Iraq," Khatami told reporters, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The chairman of the world's largest grouping of Muslim countries suggested the United Nations (news - web sites) take a role. "If the confrontation in Najaf is not defused, it will inflame emotions and may create unpredictable conditions," said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who heads the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Assailants in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killed one Turkish citizen and two Iraqis along a road to the northern city of Kirkuk late Sunday, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.
In Kirkuk, Sharzad Hassan, 31, an official with the pro-U.S. Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was gunned down in a drive-by shooting late Sunday, police officer Sarhat Qadir said.
Five U.S. troops were reported dead Sunday — including three Marines killed in action Saturday in Anbar province, a Marine who died in a vehicle accident and a soldier killed by a roadside bomb Sunday in the northern city of Mosul.
As of Friday, 949 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Garen, who was kidnapped Aug. 13 in Nasiriyah, was released Sunday along with his Iraqi translator at al-Sadr's offices there after the cleric's aides appealed for his freedom.
"I feel like I have lots and lots of friends here and I hope that I can continue to work here," the 36-year-old New Yorker said.
What? Are they threatening to tear up Sadr's cabinet post contract. Brutal.
Can you imagine if someone takes a picture of one of Sadr's guys, haning out a window of the mosque, with an RPG and a "Kerry/Edwards" banner?
Who gives a damn if that shrine is hit?
..."...Iran has called on Muslim nations to hold an urgent meeting to deal with Iraq. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) repeated denials of claims by some Iraqi officials that his country supports al-Sadr."...
Is an 'urgent meeting' something like a 'cease-fire'? The heat is getting hot?
Probably picking off every other guy they see. (As psyops, leaving a few un-shot is probably a lot more effective than killing them all....)
I keep waiting to hear "We have not yet confirmed Sadr's demise, coalition forces are still searching the 15 block crater left when the shrine imploded. Iraqi officials estimate that the shrine was actually a ammo and explosive warehouse for insurgents." Oh please make that day be today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.