US forces kill 18 Iraqis in Baghdad, medics say (Sadr's Medhi Army vs US troops)

Reuters ^ | March 26 2006

[jmc1969]

At least 18 Iraqis were killed on Sunday after U.S. troops clashed with a Shi'ite militia, medics and police said.

Police said the clashes erupted after the Mehdi Army militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr tried to stop U.S. troops from entering a mosque.

A medic said 18 bodies were found around the mosque.

A senior aide to Sadr accused U.S. troops of killing more than 20 unarmed worshippers during evening prayers at a Sadr mosque in east Baghdad.

Police and residents said there were clashes involving Sadr's Mehdi Army militia fighters after U.S. troops raided the mosque in east Baghdad. Police said the troops appeared to be trying to arrest someone.

Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji told Reuters the dead were not militiamen and had been unarmed: "The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers ... They tied them up and shot them."

[jmc1969]

The Medhi Army must be destoryed.

[Perdogg]

I think it's time for Muqi to meet the virgins.

[SittinYonder]

We should have killed Sadr instead of dealing with him.

[mass55th]

Awww. What a shame. I feel for them, but I can't reach them.

[marron]

This is a battle that has been a long time coming.

We delayed the attack on Fallujah, but in the end we did it right.

Its time now to finish the Mehdi fanatics. They are essentially Iranian puppets. They have no place in the new Iraq.

[jmc1969]

Ping

[SteveMcKing]

Perhaps the goal was first to make Sadr a celebrity, and then to make an example of what happens to such villains.

[G.Mason]

"The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers ... They tied them up and shot them."

Yeah ... right Roto Reuters!

[Bahbah]

They tied them up and shot them."

No they didn't, you lying piece of cr@p.

[Patriot from Philly]

Was it a wedding party or women and children killed execution style. That's the new line the left is taking. They are trying very hard for a My Lai. Every US offensive must be stopped or discredited following the Fallujah Marine narrative.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hattip to Powerline News for this:

Mortar slams near radical Shiite cleric home in Iraq
2006-03-27

**************************************

Mortar slams near radical Shiite cleric home in Iraq

2006-03-27

A MORTAR round slammed 50 meters from firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's home yesterday in the holy city of Najaf. The popular, anti-American Shiite leader was at home but not hurt, an aide said.

A child and at least one guard were wounded in the attack, said police and al-Sadr aide Sheik Sahib al-Amiri.

At least 23 Iraqis, meanwhile, were killed in violence that continued to rattle the country while political leaders remain deadlocked over a new government. Among the dead was a 13-year-old boy killed by a bomb as he walked to school in the southern city of Basra, police said.

Iraqi troops sealed the area near al-Sadr's home while the cleric's Mahdi Army militia surrounded the structure after the attack, al-Amiri said. Al-Sadr lives near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, about 150 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Shortly after the attack, the cleric issued a statement calling for calm.

"I call upon all brothers to stay calm, and I call upon the Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites everyday," he said ahead of Wednesday's commemoration marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Najaf police chief called the assault a "cowardly attack" by those still loyal to Saddam Hussein aimed at dividing the Iraqi people.

"But this will not happen," Major General Abbas Mi'adal told reporters near al-Sadr's home. "We are ready to confront any terrorist schemes and protect the pilgrims."

There were conflicting reports about the attack. Al-Sadr's aide said two mortar rounds fell near the home wounding two guards and the child, while the police chief said it was just one mortar round that wounded one guard and the child.

Al-Sadr said that American troops were trying to drag Iraqis into "sectarian wars." "I call upon my brothers not to be trapped by the Westerners' plots," he said.

Al-Sadr is a major force among Shiites, especially in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. His powerful militia is accused of carrying out sectarian revenge killings after the February 22 bombing of another important Shiite shrine in Samarra.

The cleric, who was on a regional tour when the Samarra attack on the shrine took place, cut short his visit and came back "in order for the country not to be pulled to street battles. I wanted to salvage the Iraqi people from these problems."

Al-Sadr has close ties to Iran. His militia launched two uprisings against US troops in 2004.

The Associated Press

[musicman]

[Gum Shoe]

Sometimes we make little or no sense. We disarmed/disbanded the two battalions of anti-Iranian Shiite militia in SE Iraq, but allow the Mahdi Army a$$oles to keep all their weapons and run rampant?

[Chgogal]

Do we have Mad Sadr's mosques, etc. bugged? We should have this malignant tumor watched/followed/listened to 24/7.

[Mogengator]

Who ya gonna believe? Our troops or Al Sodder?

Nice to see some good news out of Iraq.

[jmc1969]

Which battalions did we disband?

[lafroste]

It makes you wonder however how many on the American left will simply believe such a bald faced and preposterous lie, and act accordingly.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I hope we have humint assets by now!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From Reuters:

FACTBOX-Developments in Iraq, March 26

***************************************

26 Mar 2006 17:31:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
March 26 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents in Iraq as of 1430 GMT on Sunday.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led interim government. The bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on Feb. 22 has been followed by a surge in sectarian attacks.

Asterisk denotes new or updated item.

* BAQUBA - Authorities found 30 bodies, most of them beheaded, on the main road of a village near Baquba, just north of Baghdad. Police said many of the victims had also been shot.

BAGHDAD - Police found 10 bodies in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday some were bound, blindfolded and shot in the head, interior ministry sources said.

NAJAF - Mortar bombs landed in the neighborhood of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, wounding two of his bodyguards, his security guards and police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found a house they said was rented by insurgents for making roadside bombs. Two car bombs were also discovered, said a government statement.

The statement also said police killed what they said were eight terrorists, arrested 49 others, and defused a number of roadside bomb in different cities of Iraq.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities arrested a police major accused of taking part in death squads in Baquba, north of Baghdad, a source in the Ministry of Interior said.

BASRA - A 14-year-old student was killed and two others wounded by a bomb planted in front of a school in the southern city of Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A woman was killed and three others wounded by a bomb in front of her house in central Baghdad, police said.

WAJIHIYA - Gunmen killed two policemen in Wajihiya, a small town east of Baquba, police said. Three guards of the mayor of Wajihiya were wounded by a roadside bomb as they headed to the scene of the attack, police added.

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[RightWhale]

accused U.S. troops of killing more than 20 unarmed worshippers during evening prayers

The Medhi Army must be destoried, and this one is quite a story, if not up to the level of a folktale.