'Military Clearing' in Najaf to Resume

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040815/ts_latimes/militaryclearinginnajaftoresume&cid=2026&ncid=1480


<snip>
Mouwafak Rabii, national security advisor to interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, said that negotiations for a peaceful resolution to the conflict had broken down and that a temporary cease-fire declared a day earlier between Sadr's militia on one side and U.S. and Iraqi forces on the other no longer applied.


"It is with deep sorrow and regret that I announce the failure of efforts to end the crisis in Iraq peacefully," Rabii told reporters here, adding that "military clearing operations" would resume "to establish law and order this holy city."


It was unclear, however, when any major strike against Sadr's followers would begin. Before the truce took effect, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday encircled the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf's Old City, where Sadr and as many as 1,000 members of his Al Mahdi militia are believed to be holed up.


Any attempt to rout Sadr probably would be conducted by Iraqi forces, rather than by the Americans, to lessen the political fallout of moving on one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites.


"We are going to now assume a more background and supportive role and let Iraqi security forces take primary responsibility," Maj. Doug Ollivant of the Army's 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, said this morning.

[mom cat]

1. "a more background and supportive role " read: "bomb the hell

out of them." * needs a military victory that he can tout and you can bet that our support will be anything but "background".

[MetaTrope]

2. Aren't there a couple thousand "human shields" in the city now too?

What's happened to them?

[DocSavage]

4. What?

Human shields? Who or whom are they shielding? and who are they shielding the people from?

[Aidoneus]

5. thousands of people..

marched into Najaf from all over the south to put themselves between the invaders and the Masjid of Imam Ali(RA). They came unarmed, and showered the Mahdi's Army with the candies and flowers and other props left unused from Act I (so Wolfowitz was just a bit off with the expectation; and great songs will be written about Perle, just not like he expected). Let me try to find a shot or two of this.. There was even a large aid convoy sent from al-Fallujah in solidarity, something that would usually be really unheard of!

[leftchick]

7. Juan Cole had a link to photos this morning at his site....

I could not get it to work for some reason. I will try again...

On Edit:

<snip>
If you want a stark visual account of what is going on in Najaf, look at the pictures at Karbala News.net. The pictures of people walking or marching show Shiites hurrying to Najaf in hopes of forming a human shield around Muqtada. Most are self-explanatory. Mostly these kinds of images are absent from US mass media reports

http://www.juancole.com/

[Aidoneus]

18. saw the update earlier, but didn't notice the link before..

Thanks, those pictures are inspiring..

His is probably the most useful site on the net for Iraq/ME news, even if his views annoy me sometimes. I'm glad people here are reading it.

[leftchick]

3. AP: Fighting Resumes in Holy City of Najaf

The "Military Clearing" Has begun... :(

<snip>
Explosions and gunfire rattled through Najaf, south of Baghdad, on Sunday afternoon in new clashes that appeared centered on the huge cemetery where al-Sadr' Mahdi Army militia has been hiding out and fighting running gunbattles with U.S. forces amid the tombs since the violence broke out here Aug. 5.


An explosion, believed to be from a tank round, landed near the outer wall of the compound housing the revered Imam Ali Shrine, the militants' informal headquarters and the holiest Shiite site, said Ahmed al-Shaibany, an aide to militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.


"The shrine was not hit," al-Shaibany said.


In the morning, U.S. tanks moved toward the center of town and U.S. military vehicles were seen patrolling the city, which had been quiet since Friday as government officials and the militants tried to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

[goddess40]

6. Military Clearing or racial cleansing?

They pretended to pull back once and they will play that to the hilt. The fail negotiations will be their fault to. Bush doesn't make mistakes, he just is one.

[jmcgowanjm]

8. Battalion Iraqi government troops goes over to Jaysh al-Mahdi

in al-‘Amarah.
According to al-Quds al-‘Arabi newspaper the local
puppet council in al-‘Amarah has threatened to turn against
the Iraqi puppet government in Baghdad if the US attack
on an-Najaf continues.

The newspaper reported that puppet police patrols were
seen withdrawing from Iraqi cities as the Jaysh al-
Mahdi launches its attacks, in protest over the
American offensive on an-Najaf.

Also on Friday morning, a caravan of food supplies and
5
million Dinars left an-Nasiriyah bound for an-Najaf with
the
aim of bringing aid to the people of that defiant city
under
vicious US bombardment.

http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=19056

[leftchick]

9. "puppet police patrols ".....

That is pretty catchy and apt....

[jmcgowanjm]

10. yea, you're right, leftchick

"There is no more negotiation. I am preparing too
execute whatever mission the Iraqi government gives me.
My plan is to do this alongside Iraqi soldiers or maybe
even following behind them,"
Toolan(Col. John Toolan, commander of the 1st Marine regimental Combat Team) said.

"We fight right now to prevent losing Iraq, or else we'll
be
paying the price for years to come," Toolan said. "If we
try
to emulate the qualities of Lt. Col. Sulaiman(just
captured
and executed by Resistance) then I
don't
believe these insurgents will have a chance,"
he
said.

On Saturday, Sulaiman's and Jubair's replacements
showed
up at the Marine outpost on the eastern edge of the
city
wearing their civilian clothes. There is an order in town
that
any ING(Iraqi National Guard) soldiers who wear their
uniforms will be killed.

UPI

[nolabels]

12. "maybe even following behind them"

Sounds like brave leaders to me :wtf:

[bemildred]

14. Toolan was priceless. You can smell the desperation. nt

[truthisfreedom]

11. i read "cleansing..." and

that spells trouble for gush.

[0rion]

13. They're trying to find another term for SEARCH AND DESTROY....nt

nt

[mike_c]

15. so the blood bath begins....

Pig bastards. I'm so angry I cannot speak....

[jeffreyi]

16. This is not just a bloodbath...

it's a cultural catastrophe. I don't get it. they harm the Mosque...but they "get" Sadr...so what? Defiling the mosque enrages and enlivens millions and millions against us, even those who were staying out of it before. There will be legions of replacements for Sadr if he's eliminated. I think I heard that this is the second holiest site next to the shrines in Mecca. So what's the payoff? Are they trying to provoke a big enough war to cancel elections? If so, this is the way to do it. Or is it just our incompetence, incomprehension, arrogance, disrespect????

[jeffreyi]

17. Saw this on another post

Maybe this is the grand plan
http://www.indiemediamagazine.com/article.php?story=20040815154510985

[MetaTrope]

19. Lots of stories out there today

And I haven't seen one yet that mentions there are upwards of 10,000 supporters surrounding the shrine, both Shia and Sunni. Has the military cleared them out, or is it just going to be wholesale slaughter?