Iran calls for urgent Organization of Islamic Conference meeting on Iraq

[Dover]

Iran calls for urgent OIC meeting on Iraq

TehranTimes.com
August 21, 2004


TEHRAN (Agencies) -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Friday asked the heads of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries to urgently convene to seek solutions to the worsening Iraqi crisis.

Khatami's request came when he called up the current chairman of the OIC, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He urged him "to call on members of OIC countries to meet in an emergency summit to try to find solutions to the deepening Iraqi crisis,” AFP reported

..snip..

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Friday that police had entered the revered site and taken about 400 Mahdi Army militiamen into custody after Moqtada Sadr's aides symbolically handed control of the site to Iraq's senior Shia religious authorities. "The Iraqi police are now in control of the shrine, along with the religious authorities," said senior Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim.

There was no immediate word on whether the militiamen would receive an amnesty or remain in detention. The whereabouts of Sadr also remain uncertain. But in an interview with Aljazeera, a Sadr aide, Ahmad al-Shaibani, denied police had entered the site and said Kadhim's statement was "laughable". "There were no Mahdi Army men in the holy shrine as of this morning -- they are all in the old sector of the city and there is intense fighting with U.S. troops there," al-Shaibani told Aljazeera. Meanwhile, a top U.S. military officer in Iraq said he could not confirm the country's police had taken control of the mosque in Najaf on Friday, and added the whereabouts of Sadr were unknown.

A U.S. defense official went further and denied Iraqi government claims that Iraqi police had entered the holy shrine. Fighting in the area has been fierce. At least 77 Iraqis have been killed and 70 wounded in fighting in Najaf over the past 24 hours, Iraq's Health Ministry said on Friday. Six of those killed in Najaf were police killed in a mortar attack. Najaf awoke to an uneasy calm on Friday -- punctuated by occasional gunfire -- hours after an overnight U.S. bombing raid shook the historic area of the city...cont'd

http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/

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1. A danger of Iran entering the war?

Shit.

[Racenut20]

2. Fundamentalist Shite Iran is going to take over Iraq w/out firing a shot

[Dover]

3. Iraqi Mosque Remains In Militia's Hands

Iraqi Mosque Remains In Militia's Hands

From Radio Free Europe wire:

Militiamen loyal to al-Sadr gather near the Imam Ali Mosque today.

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20 August 2004 -- Militia loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appear to remain in control of the Imam Ali Mosque in Al-Najaf today, despite earlier statements from Iraq's interim government that Iraqi police had moved into the shrine.


A senior Interior Ministry spokesman earlier today said police had entered the mosque without a shot being fired and arrested hundreds of militiamen.

A top al-Sadr aide refuted that statement. The U.S. military also said it could not confirm Iraqi police had taken control of the mosque.

Al-Sadr has said he will hand over control of the mosque to Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani....cont'd

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/08/eb98270f-be51-4ade-bc54-264051714096.html

Another web site on Iraq: http://www.rferl.org/specials/iraqcrisis/