Posted on 08/30/2003 3:06:52 AM PDT by kattracks
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all four have connections to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.The official, who said the death toll in the Friday bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men - two Iraqis and two Saudis - were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.
The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force.
The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in which at least 23 people died and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.
The FBI said the U.N. bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it produced in the former Soviet Union.
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing.
``Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!'' a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said Saturday, adding he had been in contact. The U.S.-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.
While many here had blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well.
Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of Iraq's most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.
The blast gouged a three-foot-deep crater in the street in front of the mosque, tore apart nearby cars and reduced neighboring shops to a tangled mass of metal, wood and corpses.
``I saw al-Hakim walk out of the shrine after his sermon and moments later, there was a massive explosion. There were many dead bodies,'' said Abdul Amir Jassem, a merchant who was in the mosque.
Men and women pressed their hands and faces against the doors of the mosque, which was closed after the blast. Mosaic tiles were blown off the gold-domed building, a sacred Shiite shrine where the Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad is buried.
The building, which is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year, appeared only slightly damaged.
08/30/03 06:00 EDT
Ahh, the same old, same old...
By TAREK AL-ISSAWI
The Associated Press
8/30/03 6:11 AM
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all have links to al-Qaida, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The official, who said the death toll in the bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men -- two Iraqis and two Saudis -- were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.
The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force.
The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in which at least 23 people died and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.
The FBI said the U.N. bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it produced in the former Soviet Union.
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.
American officials believe militants from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran are infiltrating Iraq to attack Western interests. President Bush said earlier this month that more foreign "al-Qaida-type fighters" have moved in.
Last week, a shadowy group that takes its name from the alias of Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden's top deputy, claimed responsibility for the U.N. bombing.
The Abu Hafs el-Masri Brigades -- one of three groups to claim responsibility for the attack -- made its claim on a Web site, but U.S. officials said they could not authenticate it and it remained unclear if the group exists or has any link to al-Qaida. Atef himself was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing.
"Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!" a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing, his office said Saturday, adding he had been in contact. The U.S.-led coalition is responsible for overall security in Iraq.
While many here had blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well.
Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of Iraq's most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.
The blast gouged a three-foot-deep crater in the street in front of the mosque, tore apart nearby cars and reduced neighboring shops to a tangled mass of metal, wood and corpses.
"I saw al-Hakim walk out of the shrine after his sermon and moments later, there was a massive explosion. There were many dead bodies," said Abdul Amir Jassem, a merchant who was in the mosque.
Men and women pressed their hands and faces against the doors of the mosque, which was closed after the blast. Mosaic tiles were blown off the gold-domed building, a sacred Shiite shrine where the Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad is buried.
The building, which is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each year, appeared only slightly damaged.
Of course they won't.
But no one will believe them.
I certainly hope you're right -- that was the original Plan A, after all.
But the comment someone made a week or so ago has appeal. If our presence in Iraq is drawing in the crazies, and the crazies are deeply offending the Iraqi population with their truck bombs and infrastructure strikes, and if furthermore they're getting rolled up by Iraqi police and killed out in the countryside by American raids, then I have to think that some good things are happening.
As someone pointed out, if you compare this with giving the fanatics free shots at Boston Latin School or Disneyworld, you have to like this matchup a lot better. We may lose some soldiers, but our guys are making the other guys pay a much higher blood price in operatives and equipment, than if we were taking airliner bombings and other terrorist hits from them over here.
I take it that last sentence is the paragraph has been added for comic effect.
But why is Bremer on vacation? Vacation? Funny time to be taking VACATION!
And didn't take them long to get them to talk.
The problem is that the fanatics will probably figure sooner or later out that it is more fatal to attack U.S. troops than it is to attack girls schools and hospitals. Let's just hope that it is later than sooner.
That's gotta hurt.
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