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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US forces battle near Karbala shrines |
| 2004-05-22 |
| American AC-130 gunships and tanks battled militiamen near shrines in this Shiite holy city Friday, and fighting was heavy in two other towns south of Baghdad. In Karbala, the U.S. military said it killed 18 fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched an uprising against the American-led coalition in early April and is wanted in the murder of a rival moderate cleric last year. Hospital officials reported 12 deaths, including two Iranian pilgrims. A driver for the Arab television network Al-Jazeera was also killed. Much of the fighting was near the city's Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines, which U.S. forces say are being used by militiamen as firing positions or protective cover. At least six people were killed and 56 were injured in fighting in Najaf and neighboring Kufa, where al-Sadr delivered a defiant sermon to 15,000 worshippers in which he urged his supporters to resist the coalition. At a checkpoint in Kufa, American forces shot at a car carrying a close aide of al-Sadr, Mohammed al-Tabtabaei, injuring him and killing his driver, al-Sadr's office in Najaf said. Al-Tabtabaei was taken into custody. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 I've mentioned it before and I'll bring it up again: Isn't there some way to prompt a massive release of CO2 or N2 that will nondestructively suffocate all occupants of these shrines? We need to evacuate the entire perimeter and release a oxygen deprivation cloud that will permanently pacify these sites. I'll once more go so far as to advocate holding the shrines hostage against a cessation of all further inssurection. No better message could be sent to Iran's Shiites as to just how thin the ice is that they are skating upon. That Sadr remains mobile (not to mention breathing) remains a total mystery. This mutt should have experienced fast onset lead poisoning a long time ago. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-22 4:09:25 PM |
| #2 There is another section of this article that is more promising. I don't think that the bombings are having quite the effect that the jihadis intended. Police and U.S. military officers at the scene said the dead included four Iraqi policemen and a female neighbor who died in her home....the blast occurred at about 8:05 a.m. was caused by a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device."...It was unclear whether the bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker. Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi visited the site and was mobbed by distraught neighbors who screamed at him to "come and see what happened to our homes." "God does not accept this," one man shouted. "It would seem that the criminals do not want the law to prevail or the security men to implement it," he told reporters. "I want every honorable man in this country to condemn this crime." |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-05-22 9:33:21 AM |
| #1 they seem to get it - don't let these mooks travel. Every other friggin day it seems Al-Sadr is in Najaf, then Kufa, then Najaf. Shoot.Him.Now |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-22 7:47:34 AM |