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US moves into Karbala
A US armoured column has rolled into the centre of Karbala, hours after troops loyal to radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr left the area, ending weeks of heavy fighting. Earlier, a high-ranking member of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia said fighters had laid down their arms in the city centre, more than a month after their uprising began.
Officials with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Saturday that militiamen and U.S. forces had agreed to stop fighting in Karbala, a holy city where the two adversaries have engaged in intense battles in recent days. The clericsâ representatives of al-Sadr and al-Sistani declined to give their names, and there was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. But witnesses said there were no combatants on the streets of Karbala on Saturday.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-05-23 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=33698 |
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