Sadr's men blow up police station

[CShine]

Militiamen loyal to firebrand Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr blew up a police station which had been occupied by the US army in their Baghdad bastion of Sadr City, witnesses and a militia source said today.

"US forces left the Karama police station ... and the militiamen came an hour and half later with explosives and blew up the building," one witness said.

He said residents of the northeastern Baghdad slum had pleaded with them not to blow up the building for fear of US reprisals. But the insurgents had chanted "Moqtada, Moqtada" before setting off the explosion.

A man who claimed to be from Sadr's office said: "We decided to attack because US forces have been holed up in this place and attacking people from here."


http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9769735%255E1702,00.html

[VolcanoJen]

1. Didn't they get the memo?

We disbanded Sadr's militia. It was all over the news and stuff.

:D

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Are these the folks who have "lost their will to fight?"

LOL ... Who are we to believe?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=604566&mesg_id=604566

[jpgray]

2. Ah, is this the militia we militarily defeated? (nt)

[Occulus]

6. Was it Rummy who said that?

[Journeyman]

8. Kimmit. . .

our Iraqi-based moron in residence.

[pinto]

3. Notice the reference about "fear of reprisals".....by Americans.

The Sadrh City residents don't "hate us for our freedom", they're scared to death of us.

Way to win those hearts and minds, Bush.

[dArKeR]

5. Would a Rebel Army waste explosives on an empty building if they didn't

have an unlimited supply?

[frylock]

10. why not blow it while it was occupied?

sounds like an inside job to me. But if a "man who claimed to be from Sadr's office" says they were responsible, who am I to question?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. "Let's blow stuff up"

Glad to see them following our example.

[Doosh]

9. but....but....Sadr had been defeated! The army said so!

[daleo]

11. It seems to me there is probably more to this story

I imagine blowing up the police stations was meant as:
- a message to collaborators.
- a message to U.S. forces (along the lines that they could have booby trapped the place and blew it up while U.S. forces were there).

The story also states that the American forces had used the station as a base, and had fortified it. It seems surprising that they would have left it unguarded if that was the case. Perhaps they left Iraqi police to guard it, who decided they had more important matters to attend to, when the Sadr forces came visiting.

[daleo]

12. A fuller account, from the CBS story on another thread

"Later Sunday, gunmen attacked the Karama police station in Sadr City, the scene of clashes between the Americans and gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The assailants ordered police to file out of the blue-painted single story building, rigged it with explosives and detonated the charges, engulfing the building in a cloud of smoke.

In a similar attack, eight people disguised as police entered a police station late Saturday in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad, and shot dead seven officers before blowing up the building."

[lostnfound]

14. AlJazeera has an even worse account.

South of the capital, anti-occupation fighters attacked a police station south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 10
Armed men disguised as police entered the building in the town of Musayyab and forced policemen into a cell at gunpoint before planting explosives. When locals tried to free the police, the explosives were detonated, witnesses said.

Pretty coordinated attacks. But the Al jaz article does NOT attribute this to Sadr.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4649C85A-3FDE-432E-925B-7CBADA617578.htm

[Mechatanketra]

13. Makes me wonder ...

A man who claimed to be from Sadr's office said: "We decided to attack because US forces have been holed up in this place and attacking people from here."

Is it just me, or does this seem to be a mocking retort to American rationalizations for bombing mosques?