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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Insurgents attack Iraqi conference with mortars |
| 2004-08-15 |
| It's al-Reuters. Can you tell? Insurgents fired mortars at a meeting where Iraqi leaders met to pick an interim national assembly Sunday, killing at least two people in a grim reminder of the country's tortuous path toward democracy. Casting a further shadow over the gathering, Shi'ite militiamen fought fierce battles with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf after the collapse of peace talks aimed at ending fighting that has killed hundreds. Iraq's Interior Ministry said three mortar bombs hit a taxi and bus station on the edge of the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, a few hundred yards away from the conference center, also wounding 17 others. The three-day conference, with 1,300 delegates, was not affected, though the explosions rattled windows. The brazen mortar attack illustrates Iraq's nightmarish security situation as politicians and religious leaders try to plot the country's road to democracy. In Najaf, numerous blasts hit militia positions near the city's holy sites, but it was not immediately clear if U.S. and Iraqi forces had begun an all-out offensive against the Mehdi Army loyal to radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. One shell landed near the outer wall of the sacred Imam Ali Mosque, killing one man, a Reuters witness said. Iraq's Interior Ministry said it had issued an order for Iraqi and U.S. forces not to attack the mosque, where hundreds of Sadr's followers were believed to be sheltering. Such an attack could trigger outrage among Iraq's Shi'ite majority. The Interior Ministry also said it had information there were 25 foreigners inside the Imam Ali shrine who are trying to incite violence and threatening to blow it up. Raising the stakes, Sadr has vowed to fight to the death. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |