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US Tanks Roll Over Sadr Demoâs (I Wish)
EFLUS tanks deployed in the Iraqi capital to stop hundreds of angry protestors marching on the coalitionâs city-centre headquarters as Shiite Muslim radicals took to the streets across central and southern Iraq. The protest in the capital turned violent as some supporters of radical leader Moqtada Sadr threw themselves at the US tanks and a police officer said at least two of the demonstrators had been crushed. We can only hope...an immobile Tank is a vulnerable Tank, they get in the way, they get chrushed. There should be no games or hesitation over this.... Huge protests were also held in the central pilgrimage city of Najaf and as far south as Amara, while unarmed militiamen from Sadrâs Mehdi Army paraded in Sadr City, a sprawling mainly Shiite neighbourhood of the capital regarded as a radical stronghold. Sadrâs followers have held almost daily demonstrations to protest the decision by the coalition last Sunday to close his weekly newspaper for 60 days on charges of inciting violence. Which it was....inciting violence that is. This newspaper should of been shut down long ago...and should I say it again? Likewise Sadr and his like should be 6ft down and pushing up pretty daisyâs...doing something useful for Iraq, like being fertilizer...lol Early Saturday, Sadr supporters took to the streets of Najaf, reacting to unfounded rumours that Spanish coalition soldiers had detained Mustafa Yaacubi, the head of his office in the city. Spanish commanders "categorically" denied the charge in a statement that was distributed to the crowd that formed outside the headquarters of the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade in Najaf until mid-evening. The protestors dismissed the denial, demanding the release of Yaacubi and calling for another sit-in to take place Sunday morning. The poor Spanish...they canât win for losing. New bombs are going off in Madrid, and here the Islamists wonât even believe their denial Rumours of Yaacubiâs arrest also spread to the southern city of Amara where thousands of protestors took to the streets to vent their anger, an AFP correspondent said. Sheikh Qais al-Khazaali, the head of Sadrâs office in Baghdad, warned that his movement would react if Yaacubi was not quickly released. "This is a new provocation by the coalition forces," Sheikh Khazaali told AFP. "If he is not quickly released, our movement, our leadership and our supporters will react with the means at our disposal." Another rumour that coalition forces were surrounding Sadrâs office in Najaf spread in the afternoon, prompting hundreds of his followers to head to the coalitionâs Baghdad headquarters in buses and cars, correspondents said. A Taget rich enviorment is a nice thing, as I always say Their advance was stopped by police units and at least half a dozen US tanks which cordoned off streets leading to the heavily fortified administrative compound. An AFP correspondent saw one young man lunging at a tank which stopped abruptly without harming him. The crowd cheered the young man and then protestors upturned carts to block the road. "There were two or three dead among the protestors who threw themselves under American tanks which could not avoid them," said Sergeant Abbas Mohamad. Only two or three dead? Heck, our Lads must not be trying In similar clashes Friday evening, three Salvadoran soldiers were shot and wounded as they tried to disarm what the San Salvador press described as pro-Sadr militiamen in Kufa, just outside Najaf. Major Carlos Herradon, spokesman for the Plus Ultra Brigade, said the shooting erupted when the troops tried to disarm the militiamen in the shrine city, a Sadr stronghold, and a group of them opened fire. The safest way to disarm an Islamists is...first to have him dead Posted by: Traveller 2004-04-03 |
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