Iraq's most sacred Shiite shrine was slightly damaged and at least 13 Iraqis were killed in fighting Tuesday between American forces and militiamen loyal to a radical cleric. The U.S. military charged that gunfire by Shiite militants damaged the holy site.
| Maybe they oughta be more careful with their holy sites... |
It was the second time the the Imam Ali shrine has been hit in the past two weeks of fighting. On May 14, machine-gun fire struck the golden dome, leaving four small holes and each side blaming the other. After fighting in Najaf eased Tuesday, crowds loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered at the Imam Ali shrine to look at the damage. The inner gate of the shrine, leading into the tomb of Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, appeared to have been hit by a projectile. Debris was scattered on the ground. A veil covering the gate was ripped apart, and parts of the wall were damaged. Bits of mortar and parts of a projectile were scattered on the courtyard floor. Another projectile landed outside the shrine, about 10 yards from the outer wall. Three militiamen were wounded in that attack, and three fighters were killed in fighting in the city, al-Sadr's office said. Supporters of al-Sadr accused the Americans of firing mortars at the shrine.
| "It musta been the Merkins!" |
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations, denied that U.S. forces shelled the shrine. He said the Americans were uncertain whether the damage was caused by exchanges of fire between rival Shiite groups or whether al-Sadr's fighters targeted the compound "to try to provoke outrage so they could blame it on the coalition forces." The Kuwaiti representative of Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, accused al-Sadr's militia of deliberately attacking the shrine "to agitate world opinion against the coalition."
| Sounds like Sistani's decided Tater's going down... |
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Mehri said in a statement that the militia fired a mortar shell at the dome of the shrine but hit a wall instead.
| They were actually trying for the broad side of a barn... |
Al-Sistani, who is more popular among Iraq's Shiite majority than al-Sadr, has long shunned the younger cleric. Al-Sadr has gained support among Shiites through his defiance of the U.S. occupation — and al-Sistani has refrained from criticizing the young cleric openly.
| He's been becoming a bit more open lately. I think he's worked out that Tater would have him bumped off if he could... |
Explosions and gunfire were heard Tuesday around Najaf's Revolution of 1920 Square and the cemetery, a warren of paths and tombs offering many hiding places for militiamen armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Eight people were killed and 18 injured in the fighting in Najaf, said Seyed Kifah Shemal, an official at Hakim General Hospital. Two people died and 14 were injured overnight in Kufa, said Riyadh Kadhem, a nurse at the Forat al-Awsat hospital there. They said the casualties were mostly civilians. There were no reports of U.S. casualties. According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, about 328 Shiite insurgents and 21 coalition troops have been killed in al-Sadr's uprising since early April.
| That's a better than 10-1 kill ratio, which is good. But it seems to be mostly cannon fodder, which is bad. Better to take out the command and control nodes and leave the cannon fodder to wither on the vine. That'd mean actually scrubbing Tater. If we'd done that in March most of 359 people would still be alive. Those who carp that "violence never solves anything" should consider those 359 lives "solved," and ponder the economies that would have resulted if Tater was now 60 days in the grave. |
Fighting in Najaf and other Shiite shrine cities south of Baghdad has raised alarm among Shiite Muslims throughout the world who fear damage to the sacred sites. U.S. officials say they have been careful to avoid damaging the shrines and have accused al-Sadr of using holy places to store weapons and seek sanctuary. The young cleric launched his uprising in early April after the Americans began to crack down on him, first closing his newspaper, then arresting a top aide and finally announcing an Iraqi court had issued an arrest warrant charging him in the April 2003 murder of a moderate cleric. The crackdown triggered unrest in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and in the formerly peaceful Shiite south, including fighting in Basra, Amarah, Nasiriyah and in the holy cities of Kufa, Najaf and Karbala. |