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Iraq
4 With al-Qaida Ties Held in Iraq Blast
2003-08-30
Iraqi police have arrested four men in connection with the bombing of Iraq’s holiest Shiite Muslim shrine, and all have links to al-Qaida, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Who woulda thunk it?
The official, who said the death toll in the bombing had risen to 107, said the four arrested men — two Iraqis and two Saudis — were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.
When caught, they were covered with mysterious bruises, cuts, and cattle-prod injuries, and all had bamboo shoots underneath their fingernails. The official was at a loss to explain why they were so willing to talk.
The bombing killed one of the most important Shiite clerics in Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had been cooperating with the American occupation force. On Saturday, 4,000 mourners chanted for vengeance in Najaf.
Gotta pick somebody to have vengeance against, guys...
In Baghdad, about 3,000 Shiites protested at the gates of the U.S.-led Coalition headquarters in Baghdad, complaining that the coalition’s failure to provide security led to al-Hakkim’s death.
"When we told you that we wanted you to stay far away from the mosques in Najaf & Karbala, we were just playing hard-to-get!"
U.S. military helicopters hovered low overhead, but the demonstrators dispersed peacefully after an hour. The police official, who led the initial investigation and beating torture interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines. The official said the bomb was made from the same type of materials (called "explosives") used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in which at least 23 people died and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.
Just tripping lightly, from site to site, like little explosives butterflies...
The FBI said the U.N. bomb was constructed from ordnance left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein, much of it produced in the former Soviet Union.
Pretty weak attempt to shift blame, if you ask me...
The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos
This part works
so that police and American forces would be unable to focus attention on the country’s porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.
This part doesn’t work so well
The four men arrived in Najaf three days before the bombing and were staying with a friend who did not know their intentions, the official said.
"I know nuthink", said Mohammed Shultz, who was a formerly sergeant and prison guard in the Iraq Army.
American officials believe militants from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran are infiltrating Iraq to attack Western interests. President Bush said earlier this month that more foreign "al-Qaida-type fighters" have moved in. Last week, a shadowy group that takes its name from the alias of Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, claimed responsibility for the U.N. bombing. The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades — one of three groups to claim responsibility for the attack — made its claim on a Web site, but U.S. officials said they could not authenticate it and it remained unclear if the group exists or has any link to al-Qaida.
Think false nose and moustache...
In Baghdad, 150 U.N. employees held a somber memorial service on Saturday to remember their colleagues killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of the U.N. office.
Security for the memorial was enhanced to the new U.N. "Standards for Protection in War Zones" by the addition of the TeleTubbies.
Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing in Najaf. "Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!" a crowd of 4,000 vampires men chanted while beating their chests.
"Dire Revenge™! Dire Revenge™! Dire Revenge™! Dire Revenge™! Dire Revenge™! ..."
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country’s Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
Makes it very complicated. If they want the blood of the killers, they've got to help us hunt them down...
Al-Hakim was the spiritual leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. In Baghdad Saturday, a member of the group’s politburo, Ali al-Ghadban, said the bombing would not deter it from cooperating with the Americans.
We really think you ought to reconsider the "politburo" stuff... it has some unpleasant connotations...
I'd think the bombing would reinforce the desire to cooperate with the Merkins. We've got the same enemy, regardless of whether we get together to play cards on Wednesdays...
"We will continue in our dealing with the Americans, but the Americans should now be more aware of the fact that the Iraqis only are capable of preserving the security in the country," al-Ghadban said.
A fact recently demonstrated in the Iraqi city of Najaf — GOTO TOP_OF_STORY.
"They (the Americans) are responsible for the incident because of their failure to provide security in Iraq." He said the group would press the Americans for more powers for Iraqis.
Ummm... didn’t you just say that only Iraqis could provide security? So why bag on us?
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation’s coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing. While many here had blamed the attack on the Sunni Muslim followers of Saddam Hussein, there has been fighting between Shiites as well. Najaf, 110 miles southwest of Baghdad, is the headquarters of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite rivals, including followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr.
Posted by:snellenr

#3  Seems to me the Saoooodis were just claiming that there were none of their jihadi shitheads going to Iraq - and Addled Jubair was demanding proof. Well, if this be true, then he gets to each a shit sandwich, I'd say. 24 hrs later dinner's served.

As for the dipshit "protesters" and their typical contradictory demands for protection and staying off their "holy ground" and blaming us for everything short of instant Paradise, well, so what's new? They're Arabs. SOfuckingS.
Posted by: .com   2003-8-30 10:09:06 AM  

#2  But...but..but...there's no proof of any connection between Iraq and al Qaida! All the moonbats, er, I mean leftists, say so! It's obviously a Zionist plot! (/sarcasm off)

...any chances that the Iranians are going to be more inclined to turn over the leaders that they're hosting?

No. Blaming the Great Satan is far more important.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2003-8-30 9:34:28 AM  

#1   So now that al-Qaeda has basically attacked the Shi'ite version of the Vatican, any chances that the Iranians are going to be more inclined to turn over the leaders that they're hosting?
Posted by: Dan Darling   2003-8-30 9:21:45 AM  

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