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| Iraq-Jordan |
| No let-up in Shiite uprising |
| 2004-05-17 |
| This news report is from the Bahrain Tribune so read between the lines at times. The editors of this newspaper are Sunni Muslim thus share no love for the âinfidelâ Shiâites. Shiite militiamen clashed with coalition troops yesterday as the month-old uprising by Shiite scholar Moqtada Al Sadr raged on and the US military came under new fire over the abuse of prisoners. Three Iraqis were killed in a rocket attack targeting a British camp near the main southern city of Basra and another two were killed and 15 wounded during clashes in the central holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. Twenty people were also wounded when a shell exploded in a market in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where Al Sadr loyalists traded fire with Italian forces. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting between Al Sadrâs Mehdi Army militia and the US-led coalition since Friday. Two Iraqis working for the US-led coalition were shot dead and two others wounded when their vehicle came under a hail of gunfire in southern Baghdad late on Saturday, the US military said. The US death toll in Iraq has risen to 782, the coalition said, after one US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing late on Saturday. With less than 50 days to go to the coalitionâs June 30 deadline for the handover of power, interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Sadr uprising was inflicting great harm to the aspiration of Iraqis. Zebari said Al Sadr should concentrate on contesting January elections rather than fighting coalition forces and Iraqi police. But despite becoming increasingly isolated among the Shiite community, the renegade scholar was offered help from across the Islamic religious divide. Nine pick-up trucks filled with food and medicine were brought for his militia by a delegation from the Sunni insurgent bastion of Fallujah where fighters battled US forces for more than a month. The trucks were parked outside Kufaâs grand mosque, a Sadr stronghold where he normally delivers the sermon at the main weekly Muslim prayers. Despite the persistent violence, Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed that a US commander would manage a multinational force for a âconsiderable period of timeâ. âThere will be a period of time, some considerable period of time, before we can see conditions of security that can be placed totally into the hands of Iraqi security forces,â Powell told Fox television said. He also told NBC that Washington would also accept any government chosen by the Iraqi people in elections tentatively scheduled for January, even an Islamist one, when asked if an Iranian-style theocracy would be acceptable. In a fifth straight day of clashes in Karbala, US tanks made a brief foray into the city centre yesterday morning, approaching two of Shiite Islamâs holiest shrines. Although the coalition has urged residents to leave the city, around 500 gathered for a rally called by another hardline scholar to protest the coalition onslaught against the city. âLong live Sadr, the Americans are an army of infidels,â the demonstrators chanted as some 15 tanks approached the area before pulling back as the crowd swarmed towards them. In the holy city of Najaf further south, two Sadr militiamen were killed and two wounded when they attacked a US convoy, a US officer said. And in Nasiriyah, 20 people were wounded when a shell exploded in a market as Sadrâs militiamen and Italian troops continued to trade fire, officials said. On Saturday, 13 civilians and journalists were evacuated to the Italian base from the Nasiriyah headquarters of the US-led coalition as it came under fire, said an Italian military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Perrone. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #1 I believe this 'uprising' are classic Soviet-style diversionary operations, masking other activities. Think about it. A former military trained by the Soviets who probably told them proudly about how rear area 'partisans' were used to disrupt enemy rear areas. In some cases those operations were used to mask insertion (or extraction) of NKVD agents as well as disrupt enemy supply operations in anticipation of renewed offensive operations. Our media loves to talk about those romantic resistance 'movements' and 'uprisings' nearly in every case failing to understand these human events are rarely spontaneous; they carry with them much more practical and military reasons for being. Just my opinion. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-05-17 10:04:43 PM |