Offensive resumes in Najaf, prompting desertions of Iraqi troops

[floda]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a renewed assault Sunday on Shiite Muslim militiamen in the southern holy city of Najaf in a risky campaign that was marred from the onset by an outcry from Iraqi politicians and the desertion of dozens of Iraqi troops who refused to fight their countrymen.

The latest siege began Sunday afternoon, a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's administration announced that fighting would resume after negotiations between government officials and aides to Muqtada al-Sadr failed to end the militant cleric's 10-day rebellion. The failed cease-fire talks, desertions and renewed fighting further undermined Allawi's leadership just as Iraq was poised to take its first step toward free elections by picking a national assembly.

More than 100 delegates walked out of a national conference that was hailed as Iraq's first experiment with democracy after decades of dictatorship. Enraged over the fresh violence in Najaf, the delegates left the meeting hall declaring that, "as long as there are airstrikes and shelling, we can't have a conference."

snip


Sunday's showdown in Najaf was troubled even before the fighting resumed. Several officials from the Iraqi defense ministry told Knight Ridder that more than 100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Neither U.S. military officials nor Iraqi government officials would confirm the resignations.


more...

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9409919.htm

[Joanne98]

1. There goes the Iraqi face

Nothing to hide behind now.

[number6]

2. There goes the Iraqi liberation farce.

as the fiasco continues /...

[neonplaque]

3. certainly not the poster-child they wanted for the repub convention n/t

[hadrons]

14. you got that right, neonplaque ...

BYW, welcome; sorry the news couldn't be better

[Sporadicus]

4. The Iraqi Forces Want no Part of the Desecration

of the Shrine of the Imam Ali. Regardless of Sunni or Shi'ite, no muslim wants anything to do with the destruction of this holy site.

[Zynx]

11. I wouldn't say that.

Saddam had no problem getting his Sunni Republican Guard to storm the site and run the defenders over with tanks.

[Sporadicus]

13. Running Over Defenders With a Tank is One Thing

but desecrating a holy site could incite violence for generations.

[rocktivity]

5. Iraqi troops are deserting? That's WONDERFUL news!!!

Oh, wait--you're talking about the Iraqi troops who've been on BUSH'S side...


Never mind.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Dr Fate]

6. I would not shoot fellow-Americans...

...but we expect the Iraqi's to shoot their own countrymen?...

Dr Fate, no FP expert himself, could have told them this idea sucked.

Of course the whole damn idea of ever going over there sucked.

[daleo]

7. Yesterday's news said they would lead the assault

So much for that plan. The colonial troops just aren't cooperating. So much for the fig leaf.

[Dr Fate]

8. Wow? The media got everything wrong again?

What is this, the ten-thousandth time the media got it wrong since after 9/11?

Gee,I'm starting not to trust these guys... :)

[DulceDecorum]

12. The Iraqi Information Minister said:

"Their failure in this regard is abysmal. They want to tell the world changes thought - as a matter of fact, they do not respect the world, they want to tell taxpayers and the domestic public to keep them deceived. We will embroil them, confuse them and keep them in the quagmire. They have begun to tell more lies so that they might continue with the perpetration of their crimes. May they be accursed."

"We will kill them all........most of them."

"They are like a snake and we are going to cut it in pieces."

"They do not even have control over themselves! Do not believe them!"

"I would like to clarify a simple fact here: How can you lay siege to a whole country? Who is really under siege now? Baghdad cannot be besieged. Al-Nasiriyah cannot be besieged. Basra cannot be besieged."

"That bastard the American Minister of Defense Rumsfeld, and I won't say shamelessly, because they don't know what shame means. These are criminals. The whole word can hear the warning sirens. This criminal sitting in the White House is a pathetic criminal and his Defense Minister deserves to be beaten. These criminals lie to the world because they are criminals by nature and conditioning. They consider this a military site! Shame on you! You will forever be shamed! You have ruined the reputation of the American people in the most terrible way! Shame on you! And we will destroy you!"

"They are trapped in Umm Qasr. They are trapped near Basra. They are trapped near Nasiriyah. They are trapped near Najaf. They are trapped everywhere."
http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/

[mom cat]

9. Maybe the Iraqi troops are just "turning the corner"! like our economy

in a giant U turn. Would you expect troops from Ireland to storm the Vatican?

[Just Me]

10. Gee, wonder why so many "delegates" would walk out like that.

Perhaps, they aren't adapting to the fluid definition that the Bush Imperialists give to that word, "sovereignty".

Ya' think?

[Cocoa]

15. serve as cannon fodder for the political purposes of the invaders?

gee, I wonder why they're not taking advantage of this fantastic opportunity.

[seventhson]

16. Here's the BIG story: Iraq delegates walk out

Enraged over the fresh violence in Najaf, the delegates left the meeting hall declaring that, "as long as there are airstrikes and shelling, we can't have a conference."

snip


THAT is very telling. There is NO support for the US policies even among the people handpicked to support them!

[Disturbed]

17. Implosion!

Many Iraqis now realize what is going on. They were patient with the US Puppet Regime thinking it would be temp. but now see that this is the colonizer's tool. The US colonization plans of Iraq will fail!