NYTimes v. the Dallas Morning News.

[reprehensor]

Who needs Pravda when you have the Dallas Morning News.

From the NYTimes:

August 2, 2004
U.S. Forces Clash With Al - Sadr's Gunmen

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:33 p.m. ET

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces clashed Monday in the holy city of Najaf with gunmen protecting the home of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's. One woman was killed and three people were wounded, a hospital official said.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

At least six U.S. military vehicles entered the Zahra area in Najaf near al-Sadr's house, which is protected by his militia, the Mahdi Army, witnesses said.

Heavy gunfire and mortar rounds set cars on fire before Iraqi police intervened and the U.S. forces withdrew, witnesses said.

''One woman was killed and we have three injured,'' said Ajwak Kadhim, director at Al-Hakim Hospital in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

Ali al-Yassiry, a Baghdad spokesman for al-Sadr, said U.S. troops briefly surrounded al-Sadr's house in Najaf but then withdrew from the city. He said the fighting had ended and the Mahdi Army was patrolling the area.

Al-Sadr, who is wanted by U.S. forces on an Iraqi warrant charging him in the April 2003 murder of a moderate cleric in Najaf, was in his house at the time, witnesses said.

The radical cleric, who has grassroots support for his anti-coalition stance, began a two-month rebellion in early April after the U.S.-led occupation authority closed his newspaper and arrested a key aide. A series of truces ended the fighting, and a decision on his arrest on the murder warrant was set aside.

(LEADS thruout to correct place of clashes to Najaf; CHANGES dateline; ADDS new graf 6 to UPDATE with comment from al-Sadr's spokesman)

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Why, it was unprovoked savagery by that demon Sadr!!

From the DMN:

Truce broken in Iraq

Shiite cleric's forces attack police station, kill GIs, civilians

06:33 AM CDT on Friday, August 6, 2004

From Wire Reports

AN NAJAF, Iraq –The tenuous truce between the U.S. military and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr unraveled Thursday when Mr. al-Sadr's men staged an assault on an Iraqi police station, forced down a U.S. helicopter and attacked Army and Marine convoys in daylong fighting.

The militia, called the al-Mahdi Army, waged gunbattles with U.S. Marines from dusk to dawn Thursday in the holy town of An Najaf, opening up barrages of machine-gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars on Humvees and helicopters.

At least one soldier and two Marines were killed and five wounded in the fighting, which also killed at least seven al-Mahdi members and an unknown number of civilians and injured dozens more. No one died in the downing of the UH-1 helicopter, whose wounded crew was evacuated.

Fighting between U.S. troops and Mr. al-Sadr's supporters also was reported in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City and the southern towns of Basra and Amarrah, and there was a car bomb south of Baghdad. In all, at least 20 civilians were killed in violence.

Each side blamed the other for the breakdown.

Mr. al-Sadr's militia first rose up in April, battling U.S. and coalition troops in several cities. It was the first major Shiite violence against the Americans.

The reigniting of widescale violence now would cause serious difficulties for coalition forces and the Iraqi interim government, already struggling against an unrelenting insurgency by Sunni militants. The al-Sadr offensive in April left hundreds dead.

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And just what the hell is 'From Wire Reports' supposed to mean? Is that like, 'Some people say...'