The shadow of evil is looming over Najaf as U.S. forces backed by the interim government resumed their attack on the city on Sunday and repeatedly desecrated the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS), the first Imam of Shiite Muslims. It is surprising that these attacks have been approved and supported by the Iraqi interim government. A brief look at recent developments in Iraq shows that the U.S. animosity towards Shiites becomes more evident day by day.
| Not toward Shiites. Toward Tater. |
| You mean they're not one and the same? |
Such cruelties against Shiites were committed under Saddam Hussein, the toppled Iraqi dictator. The U.S. and its lackey within the interim government should know that the sentiments of Shiites are like gunpowder that, if torched, will burn everything.
| Oh, the seething will commence, just you wait. |
Mortar and tank blasts, punctuated by machine-gun fire, reverberated across Najaf's historic heart just a day after the interim government vowed to return to the offensive against the militiamen of leader Moqtada Sadr. Truce talks broke down between the Iraqi government and the militia, provoking an outcry at a national conference held in Baghdad. Smoke rose from the direction of the city's vast cemetery, north of the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS), which has been a militia stronghold since a spring uprising against foreign troops. An AFP correspondent saw U.S. tanks parked 200 meters (yards) from the shrine with armed U.S. marines heading towards the Old City. Earlier, the police chief ordered journalists to leave Najaf while militia commanders vowed to resist any new U.S.-led onslaught. "I received orders from the interior minister who demands that all local, Arab and foreign journalists leave the hotel and city within two hours," General Ghaleb al-Jazairi told reporters at 10:00 am. |