U.S. Troops Capture Lieutenant of Al-Sadr

Yahoo news ^ | 5/36/04 | ROBERT H. REID, AP

[kattracks]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops captured a key lieutenant of radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr during overnight clashes in Najaf that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 50, hospital and militia officials said.

Riyadh al-Nouri, al-Sadr's brother-in-law, offered no resistance when American troops raided his home during a series of clashes in this Shiite holy city, according to Azhar al-Kinani, a staffer in al-Sadr's office in Najaf.

The capture of al-Nouri would be a major blow to al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army, which has been battling coalition forces since early April. Al-Sadr launched his uprising in response to a crackdown by coalition authorities who announced an arrest warrant against him in the April 2003 assassination of a moderate cleric in Najaf.

Al-Nouri was also sought in the 2003 killing.

Also Wednesday, masked gunmen opened fire on a convoy taking Russian technicians to work at a Baghdad power station, killing two and wounding at least five, Iraqi and Russian officials said. It was only the latest attack on employees with the Interenergoservis company.

In Moscow, the executive director of the company, Alexander Rybinsky, said Wednesday the firm would evacuate all its staff from Iraq (news - web sites). The attacks on the Russians could be an attempt to undermine international efforts to rebuild the country, since Russian expertise has played an important role in reviving Iraq's electricity industry and other infrastructure.

Elsewhere, the Polish command said a coalition base outside of Karbala, 50 miles north of Najaf, came under mortar fire late Tuesday. Demolition teams also defused three roadside bombs in the area, a spokesman for the Polish-led multinational force said Wednesday.

The mortar rounds were fired at Camp Kilo, where mostly Bulgarian troops are based, Maj. Slawomir Walenczykowski said. The attack resulted in no injuries or damage.

Fighting escalated in Shiite areas south of Baghdad in early April after al-Sadr launched an uprising against the U.S.-run occupation. Al-Sadr is sought in the April 2003 assassination of a moderate cleric in Najaf.

Al-Sadr's fighters have cleared out of Karbala following weeks of heavy clashes with U.S. and coalition forces. But clashes persist in Najaf and its twin city Kufa.

During the clashes overnight, militants fired rocket propelled grenades and mortars during three hours of skirmishes that ended about dawn, residents said. Some exchanges of fire were also reported around the city's Revolution of 1920 Square.

Fighting around some of the holiest cities of Shia Islam has angered many Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere and has led to calls for both the Americans and the militiamen to pull back from the shrines.

On Tuesday, the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf received slight damage. Both U.S. and Shiite forces blamed the other for the damage.

In the ambush on the Russian workers, police said the group was traveling in a bus when they were attacked about a few hundred yards from the Dora power station in southwestern Baghdad. One Iraqi was also killed, police said.

The wounded were taken to Yarmouk Hospital, where Dr. Adham Saadoun said some were in serious condition.

It was the second fatal attack against employees of Interenergoservis this month. On May 10, a group of Russian workers was seized after their vehicle came under attack in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad. A third worker was killed in the attack.

Three Russian and five Ukrainian employees of Interenergoservis were abducted in Iraq last month, but were released unharmed the next day.

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had repeatedly warned Russians of the dangers of living in Iraq, where violence is on the rise ahead of the return of sovereignty June 30.

The ministry blamed the deteriorating situation on the failure of the U.S.-run occupation authority "to guarantee the necessary security."

Attacks on infrastructure targets have stepped up in recent weeks. Bombings along key oil pipelines in northern and southern Iraq have resulted in temporary cutbacks in the export of petroleum — the key to reviving Iraq's economy.

U.S. troops opened fire on a car in downtown Kirkuk, killing a man and injuring his wife, an Iraqi police official said Wednesday. The Tuesday night shooting broke out five minutes after the nighttime curfew went into effect at 11 p.m., said Police Gen. Sherko Shakir. The couple's baby was also in the Fiat, but was not hurt, he said.

There was no comment from U.S. officials.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

Exit strategies are for ops that don't matter. Ops where the outcome is irrelevant, asin decoys. This operation HAS to succeed, therefore the only strategy can be victory. THAT is what the President outlined on Monday.

And our President generally gets what he wants...

[sheik yerbouty]

Put RosO'donnell's panties on him. He will be in a panty cocoon!

[AFPhys]

Another problem is that the military has limited resources.

It costs a great deal of money to use advanced technology, and the acquisition cycle goes through an usually appropriately stingy congress. That delays deployment, too.

In addition, it is often not known what quantity of each item is useful to have until you are actually in the swamp you are draining this time.

Yeah, we are using the tech we have, but I'm sure there are limited quantities available.
.

[longjack]

From Germany's "Spiegel-Online"....Sadr spokeman - Negotiations off - liquidation of militia is underway.

---

U.S. troops tighten ring around Sadr

The U.S. armed forces are serious about their hunt for radical Shiite leader Sadr and his militia. Soldiers have now arrested a close friend of the preacher in a raid in Najaf. In addition, they fought an intense battle with Sadr supporters there - in a cemetery.

Firefight in the center of Najaf

Najaf - A spokesman for Muktada Al Sadr said today that Rijad Al Nurj, a relative of the Shiite leader, had been arrested during a search of his house last night. The houses of three other close friends of Sadr had also been searched. However, no one was arrested. "This is a part of the military escalation by the US against the Shiites", the spokeman said. "We have given up hope for negotiation. What is happening now is the liquidation of Shiites, primarily the Sadr movement."

The Sadr's militia started a rebellion against the U.S. led occupation forces last month. Their resistance, in the meantime, is concentrated essentially in the south Iraqi cities of Najaf, Karbala and Kufa. U.S. army has tried for months, to capture Sadr. He had announced he would fight the occupation forces until the last foreign soldier had left Iraq. According to U.S. information, Sadr is sought by the Iraqi authorities in connection with the murder of a rival clergyman last year.

The U.S. army advanced with tanks and gunships against the militia in the cemetery of the sacred Shiite city of Najaf. According to information from hospital employees, four people were killed and at least 29 people injured at the battle. The cemetery is the most important hideout for Sadr's militia in Najaf.

"Der Spiegel"....US-Truppen ziehen Kreis um Sadr enger

Translated by longjack

[McGavin999]

The ministry blamed the deteriorating situation on the failure of the U.S.-run occupation authority "to guarantee the necessary security."

Really? How's that rebuilding effort going in Chechnya?

[AmericanChef]

-"Put RosO'donnell's panties on him. He will be in a panty cocoon!"-

Har! And make him listen to her "very, very, very, very" audio, for added oomph!

[McGavin999]

GWB needs to start thinking about an exit strategy.

What was the exit strategy for Kosovo. Ooops, never mind, we're still there.

[Terabitten]

Anybody have any idea of the initial numbers of the Mahdi Army? I've read reports of "hundreds of insurgents," but that could mean anything between one hundred and a thousand.

I'm curious to see what the REAL numbers of Mookie's troops are, because it seems to me that with us killing 20 or 30 a day, if he has an army of, say, 400, we should be causing some pretty serious attrition by now.

[Coop]

In my more optimistic moments I think along those lines, but it has been a couple of very discouraging months, hasn't it?

Not particularly. Yes, I wish the Sadr rebellion had never occurred, but I'm also looking at it positively. The Iraqis rejected Sadr and his ilk (rarely if ever mentioned by the media), our forces have killed hundreds of thugs that would have undoubtedly caused problems later, they've taken a large amount of weapons out of circulation, and we've shown that we're not going anywhere.

Meanwhile, each day the Iraqi infrastructure gets a little better.

The lowest moment for me the past couple of months, honestly, was losing Pat Tillman.

[Coop]

I'm sure they are but the problem is that US forces are not able to get into the places where the bugs can work most effectively.

I wasn't talking about bugs.

[r9etb]

The "news" dynamic of this situation has got to change if we're going to see overall improvement in the propaganda war.

True. And in that vein, while I was reading, I noted that this particular article seemed to stick fairly well to reporting actual information. Out of curiosity, I checked the byline -- sure enough, the author of the piece did not have an Arabic name.

That's now one of the first things I check -- an Arabic-sounding name is usually a good indication that there is biased reporting to follow. I wonder if any of the news organizations are becoming sensitive to that correlation?

[rudypoot]

There is only violence in three town in Iraq today: Najaf, Kufa and Baghdad and the democrats say the situation in Iraq is 'out of control'. I wonder how they are going to spin the war after that punk al Sadr is dead?

[sheik yerbouty]

A veritable wall(whale?)of sound!

[NCC-1701]

In the photo of the funeral procession, Muqtada al-Sadr is pointing to where a well-placed bullet should be aimed. Right between the eyes.

[Redbob]

Always the "key lieutenant," the "top aide," the "close associate."

Why not al-Sadr? And why "capture?" They run out of bullets?

[blackie]

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[Cap Huff]

That correlation they may be aware of, but doing little or nothing about changing, as I see it. In any event, there's still lots of biased reporting coming from "western" reporters as well.

[Southack]

"It amazes me that we do not use detection devices, e.g., sound, video or drones to keep tabs on certain areas. Apparently, we are have not embraced technology enough to counter the silent death that stalks us."

What crack are you smoking that you would think that we would, without intel, pull al-Sadr's key aide out of the 25 million people of Iraq without so much as him firing a single shot back at us?

You don't just stick your hand *blindly* into a hay stack and get to pull out the needle without so much as a pinprick, after all.

[Taxman]

Most puzzling. Fox news had video of Al Sadr and some of his supporters on the 11:00 AM (EDT) news this morning.

Question: If they can get a camera on this a$$hole, why can they not get crosshairs on the murdering sonofabitch!