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U.S. GIs Step Up Pressure on Najaf Rebels
| More evidence on OldSpooks' theory as to how to handle Tater. |
U.S. infantrymen engaged in fierce battles with cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militants Monday and U.S. tanks moved closer to the revered Imam Ali Shrine as the American military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to leave the holy site and end their uprising. Late Monday, U.S. warplanes bombed the area of the Old City, and fires lit up the night sky, witnesses said. Ahmed al-Shaibany, an aide to al-Sadr, said shrapnel from the attack hit the shrine's golden dome, one of its minarets and the compound's outer wall. The U.S. military denied damaging the shrine and said an air crew saw militants in the compound fire a rocket that clipped one of the walls and explode 10 yards outside. "We are not doing anything that could have caused damage to the shrine," Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said. There was no independent confirmation of damage to the shrine, but violence earlier Monday ripped a chunk out of the outer wall of the compound. Explosions throughout the day shook the Old City, which is a mix of streets and narrow, maze-like alleys at the heart of much of the fighting.
With the U.S. advance Monday, fewer al-Sadr militiamen were in the streets and some were seen leaving Najaf. Militant medical officials said at least two insurgents were killed and four wounded. Al-Hakim Hospital said two civilians were killed and two others injured, but more casualties were reported in the Old City and could not be reached by emergency workers, said hospital employee Hussein Hadi.
Al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army fighters are behind the uprising, has not been seen in public for many days, and police drove around Najaf with loudspeakers declaring he had fled toward Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq. Al-Sadr's aides denied that. "Muqtada al-Sadr is still in Najaf and is still supervising the operations," Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, the head of al-Sadr's office in the southern city of Nasiriyah, told Al-Jazeera television.
| So he should show himself. |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-08-24 |
