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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| More on the Iraqi advance in An Najaf | |
| 2004-08-24 | |
| Iraqi security forces moved to within 400 yards of a holy shrine in Najaf on Tuesday, just hours after the government warned Shi'ite rebels inside they would be killed if they did not surrender. "God willing, we'll be moving in tonight," a commander of one unit told Reuters, adding that around 500 Iraqi troops had been deployed to the area around the Imam Ali mosque, the first time government forces have entered the battle zone. The advance was carried out by 50 servicemen and came after U.S. helicopters fired missiles and strafed militia positions in a cemetery that adjoins the mosque, where most of the Mehdi Army loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have holed up during a bloody three-week rebellion in the southern city. A U.S. soldier guided the men in. They were shot at by Mehdi militiamen and returned fire. "We are in the last hours. This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the Mehdi Army to throw down their weapons," Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan said at a U.S. army base outside Najaf. "If they do not, we will wipe them out."
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| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 God willing, we’ll be moving in tonight," Sigh Moslems.... Ollie Cromwell Sez: God wills us to move tonight. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-24 7:48:34 PM |