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Iraqi VP: US assault on Najaf uncivilised
Iraq's interim Vice-President Ibrahim al-Jafari has criticised the United States for its heavy-handed assault on Najaf to quell the on-going uprising
In a television interview on Friday, al-Jafari expressed dismay over US claims that up to 300 Mahdi Army fighters had been killed in Najaf and said it was hardly the civilized way to rebuild Iraq.
"Of course when I hear of the deaths of Iraqi civilians, I cannot find any justification for the killings," al-Jafari said.
"I think that killing Iraqi citizens is not a civilized way of building the new Iraq, which is based on protecting people and promoting dialogue, not bullets."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E0567F02-33FA-4FB1-89E3-294EA7438990.htm
US marines say they have killed an estimated 300 Mahdi Army fighters in Najaf in the past two days, but a Muqtada al-Sadr spokesman says most of those killed were civilians.
The spokesman claimed only 36 fighters had been killed in several Iraqi cities after clashes that have fuelled fears of a new rebellion among Iraqi Shias.
The fresh fighting, which still raged on Friday, marks a major challenge for the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Alawi and appears to have destroyed a two-month-old ceasefire between US forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
"The number of enemy casualties is 300 KIA (killed in action)," Lieutenant Colonel Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said at a military base near the city, 160km south of Baghdad.
Johnston told reporters the Mahdi fighters were badly coordinated and shot at random against the heavily armed marines who were backed up by helicopter gunships and fighter planes.
"There is fighting right now. In some ways it is not as intense as yesterday," he said.
'American lies'
US military officials said there were indications that foreign fighters had joined the Mahdi Army. Criminal gangs were also involved, they said.
Asked about American casualties, Johnston said there were two dead and 12 wounded from the two days of fighting.
Fifteen US occupations soldiers were also wounded in fighting in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
The US-appointed governor of Najaf put the death toll among Shia fighters at 400, with 1000 captured. He said he had information that 80 Iranians were fighting alongside al-Sadr's militia.
However, Sheikh Raed al-Qathimi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, rebuffed the American version of the death toll.
"I categorically deny these American lies," he said, before adding only 36 Shia fighters had been killed.
Another al-Sadr spokesman, Shaikh Mahmud al-Sudani, told Aljazeera both sides had suffered casualties and "there were no accurate figures due to the violent fighting which is still underway".
He added that US forces had violated the truce between the two sides as well as the sacredness of Imam Ali's tomb which was subjected to shrapnel damage caused by nearby explosions.
Tension flare-up
Meanwhile, British and Italian troops also fought the Mahdi Army across Shia-dominated southern Iraq - in Basra, Amara and Nassiriya - while fighting raged in Sadr City and Shoula, two Shia districts of Baghdad.
The Health Ministry said fighting in Sadr City alone had killed 20 Iraqis and wounded 114 since early on Thursday, while in Nassiriya six were dead and 13 wounded.
Tension has been rising in Najaf since Iraqi security forces surrounded al-Sadr's house earlier this week.
US marines recently replaced the US army in Najaf and analysts have suggested the upsurge in violence is linked to the marines taking a more aggressive approach with al-Sadr's militia.
Militiamen shot down a US helicopter as it was trying to evacuate a wounded soldier on Thursday. No one was killed, but the pilots were wounded.
Early on Friday F-16s, AC-130 gunships and helicopters patrolled the skies over Najaf, covering US troops battling resistance fighters in and around Najaf's cemetery.
Fighting also flared near Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest for Shia Muslims, and some said that gunfire had damaged the dome of the Imam Ali shrine.
The flare-up of tension with members of Iraq's Shia community comes after Shia fighters rose up across south and central Iraq in April and May.
Ayat Allah al-Sistani
In the previous uprising, hundreds of Iraqis and dozens of US troops were killed.
Yet al-Sadr, with an ardent following among poor, disaffected youths, appeared keen to stop the latest fighting.
Via his spokesman in Baghdad, he called for a resumption of a truce struck in June.
"We have no objections to entering negotiations to solve this crisis," Mahmud al-Sudani told reporters. "As I have said in the name of Sayid al-Sadr, we want a resumption of the truce."
Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shia authority in Iraq, has carefully and quietly tried to temper al-Sadr's words and actions.
But in a worrying move for his followers, al-Sistani, 73, flew to London on Friday for treatment for a heart problem, sources said.
Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/40B1A9EE-08BC-47C2-937D-2E48A5845B53.htm
"Of course when I hear of the deaths of Iraqi civilians, I cannot find any justification for the killings," al-Jafari said.
"I think that killing Iraqi citizens is not a civilized way of building the new Iraq, which is based on protecting people and promoting dialogue, not bullets."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E0567F02-33FA-4FB1-89E3-294EA7438990.htm
US marines say they have killed an estimated 300 Mahdi Army fighters in Najaf in the past two days, but a Muqtada al-Sadr spokesman says most of those killed were civilians.
The spokesman claimed only 36 fighters had been killed in several Iraqi cities after clashes that have fuelled fears of a new rebellion among Iraqi Shias.
The fresh fighting, which still raged on Friday, marks a major challenge for the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Alawi and appears to have destroyed a two-month-old ceasefire between US forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
"The number of enemy casualties is 300 KIA (killed in action)," Lieutenant Colonel Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said at a military base near the city, 160km south of Baghdad.
Johnston told reporters the Mahdi fighters were badly coordinated and shot at random against the heavily armed marines who were backed up by helicopter gunships and fighter planes.
"There is fighting right now. In some ways it is not as intense as yesterday," he said.
'American lies'
US military officials said there were indications that foreign fighters had joined the Mahdi Army. Criminal gangs were also involved, they said.
Asked about American casualties, Johnston said there were two dead and 12 wounded from the two days of fighting.
Fifteen US occupations soldiers were also wounded in fighting in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
The US-appointed governor of Najaf put the death toll among Shia fighters at 400, with 1000 captured. He said he had information that 80 Iranians were fighting alongside al-Sadr's militia.
However, Sheikh Raed al-Qathimi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, rebuffed the American version of the death toll.
"I categorically deny these American lies," he said, before adding only 36 Shia fighters had been killed.
Another al-Sadr spokesman, Shaikh Mahmud al-Sudani, told Aljazeera both sides had suffered casualties and "there were no accurate figures due to the violent fighting which is still underway".
He added that US forces had violated the truce between the two sides as well as the sacredness of Imam Ali's tomb which was subjected to shrapnel damage caused by nearby explosions.
Tension flare-up
Meanwhile, British and Italian troops also fought the Mahdi Army across Shia-dominated southern Iraq - in Basra, Amara and Nassiriya - while fighting raged in Sadr City and Shoula, two Shia districts of Baghdad.
The Health Ministry said fighting in Sadr City alone had killed 20 Iraqis and wounded 114 since early on Thursday, while in Nassiriya six were dead and 13 wounded.
Tension has been rising in Najaf since Iraqi security forces surrounded al-Sadr's house earlier this week.
US marines recently replaced the US army in Najaf and analysts have suggested the upsurge in violence is linked to the marines taking a more aggressive approach with al-Sadr's militia.
Militiamen shot down a US helicopter as it was trying to evacuate a wounded soldier on Thursday. No one was killed, but the pilots were wounded.
Early on Friday F-16s, AC-130 gunships and helicopters patrolled the skies over Najaf, covering US troops battling resistance fighters in and around Najaf's cemetery.
Fighting also flared near Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest for Shia Muslims, and some said that gunfire had damaged the dome of the Imam Ali shrine.
The flare-up of tension with members of Iraq's Shia community comes after Shia fighters rose up across south and central Iraq in April and May.
Ayat Allah al-Sistani
In the previous uprising, hundreds of Iraqis and dozens of US troops were killed.
Yet al-Sadr, with an ardent following among poor, disaffected youths, appeared keen to stop the latest fighting.
Via his spokesman in Baghdad, he called for a resumption of a truce struck in June.
"We have no objections to entering negotiations to solve this crisis," Mahmud al-Sudani told reporters. "As I have said in the name of Sayid al-Sadr, we want a resumption of the truce."
Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shia authority in Iraq, has carefully and quietly tried to temper al-Sadr's words and actions.
But in a worrying move for his followers, al-Sistani, 73, flew to London on Friday for treatment for a heart problem, sources said.
Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/40B1A9EE-08BC-47C2-937D-2E48A5845B53.htm
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US Marines n’ Jets: Spray Rockets on Najaf, Killing 100s
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk
NAJAF (Iraq): US planes on Friday pounded with rockets the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf, including its cemetery where militiamen are held up, killing over 300 in one go.
Analysts consider it as the biggest ever operation by the US-led coalition, ever since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Columns of thick black smoke could be seen rising up from the city, as residents stayed at home with their doors bolted and fighters loyal to Moqtada Sadr prowled the streets.Power and telephone communication lines were cut.
Deserted Streets with Clouds of Smoke
Gunfire and explosions rocked Najaf on Friday as helicopters flew overhead. The streets were nearly deserted. Shops were closed and some residents near the cemetery that was the scene of much of the fighting fled with their belongings on carts. A dead woman lay abandoned on an empty sidewalk.
Fire tore through a nearby outdoor market and smoke rose from several parts of the city. The fighting on Friday dwarfed the spring clashes, residents said.
US Marines chased the militants into the massive cemetery, filled with stone and concrete buildings and ditches, which the militants had been using as a base, military officials said.
In-depth
The insurgents had taken advantage of the cemetery's location in the so-called Exclusion Zone where U.S. forces were forbidden under the truces to use as a base for attacks and a weapons storage site, said Lt. Col. Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
After the Marines attacked a police station from the cemetery early Thursday, the U.S. military retaliated, he said.
The US helicopter gunships slammed insurgent positions in the cemetery Friday and Marines were sent in to root out the remaining militants, the military said. Gunfire and explosions shook the area throughout the day.
The massive U.S. response appeared designed to quickly quash the outbreak, preventing a repeat of the spring uprising.
Targets
US helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Iraqi insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery Friday in the most intense fighting in this holy city since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military said it killed 300 militants.
The clashes between coalition forces and militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army flared in communities across the country, killing dozens of other Iraqis, according to Iraqi officials and the militants.
Eruption of Problems
The fighting threatened to re-ignite the bloody, two-month insurrection that ended with a series of truces two months ago.
A renewed uprising among the country's Shiite majority would cause severe problems for Iraq's fledgling interim government as it tries to gain popular support and coalition forces already struggling against Sunnis.
The Deadline
The Iraqi government said it was determined to crush all militias in the country, including the Mahdi Army, and Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi gave the insurgents 24 hours to leave the city.
"We believe that the end of the military operations is dependent on the exit of the armed militias from Najaf," he told reporters.
Al-Sadr's Pledge
Al-Sadr blamed all the violence plaguing Iraq on the United States, which he called "our enemy and the enemy of the people," in a sermon read on his behalf at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf.
Elsewhere
The fighting also raged in the cities of Nasiriyah, where insurgents attacked Italian and Romanian troops, and Samarra, where guerrillas attacked a U.S. military convoy. In the city of Amarah, Shiites took over four police stations Friday, before British forces counter-attacked.
Pre-dawn Clashes
Intense pre-dawn clashes hit the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where the Health Ministry said 20 people were killed and 114 wounded during two days of fighting. Separate attacks blamed on al-Sadr's followers wounded 15 American soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.
Amid the violence, al-Sadr's aides called for a return to the truces that crumbled in the fighting that began early Thursday and asked for the United Nations and the government to step in.
Call to Government
"We call upon the government — that has announced that it is sovereign — to intervene to stop the American attacks," said Mahmoud al-Sudani, an al-Sadr spokesman.
Shiite leaders, who helped broker the earlier truces, said they were working to restore the cease-fire.
Dialogue
"We are sparing no effort to reach a peaceful settlement by opening a direct dialogue between Muqtada al-Sadr's representatives on the one hand and the transitional government on the other," Ammar al-Hakeem, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq political faction, told a Qatar-based Arabic television.
Causalities
U.S. Col. Anthony Haslam, chief of operations in Najaf, said 300 militants out of a total force of about 2,000 had been killed in Najaf since Thursday. That was among the largest activists' death tolls in a single engagement since the end of the war last year.
Two U.S. Marines and one U.S. soldier were also killed in the fighting, which wounded 12 other U.S. troops, the military said.
Arrests
Al-Zurufi, the Najaf governor, estimated 400 militants were killed and 1,000 arrested. He also said 80 of the fighters at the cemetery were Iranian. "There is Iranian support to al-Sadr's group and this is no secret," he said.
The two days of fighting in Najaf also killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 58 others, according to hospital officials.
Guerillas Attack
Guerillas attacked a convoy of U.S. Humvees at dawn in the city of Samarra, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital, witnesses said. U.S. helicopters fired rockets at insurgent positions, and the U.S. convoy pulled out.
Ahmed Jadou'a, an official at Samarra Hospital, said at least two people were killed and 16 injured during the fighting. Two houses were also destroyed.
In Amarah, British troops backed by tanks fought with al-Sadr militiamen who had seized four police stations on the outskirts of the city.
The troops secured the main police station, said Maj. Ian Clooney, a British military spokesman. It was not clear if they had recaptured the smaller police stations.
Italian troops Ambushed
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops early Friday with automatic weapons and also targeted a police station, an Italian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
The fighting, which lasted until dawn Friday, killed eight Iraqis, including five militants, and injured 13 others, according to Abdul Khuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official. There were no coalition casualties, the Italian spokesman said.
Insurgents also attacked a Romanian patrol outside Nasiriyah with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, said Gelaledin Nezir, the Romanian Defense Ministry spokesman. No injuries were reported.
Coalition Base Hit
A coalition base near Najaf, Camp Golf, was hit by mortar fire early Friday, while rounds fired at a base housing Ukrainian troops missed their target, a Polish military spokesman said. No one was hurt.
Assailants also attacked a police station in the southern city of Basra and the City Hall there, police Capt. Mushtaq Talib said.
The violence wounded three police and five civilians, hospital officials said.
Violence in Basra since Thursday killed five al-Sadr fighters, said As'ad al-Basri, an al-Sadr official in the city.
Also Friday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said four Lebanese truck drivers had been taken hostage in Iraq as they drove from Baghdad to Ramadi.
15 US Soldiers wounded in six Hours
Fifteen US soldiers were injured in attacks in Baghdad within a six-hour period, the US military said on Friday.
The incidents happened on Thursday as multinational forces battled militiamen in southern Iraq and Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of leader Moqtada Sadr.
Five soldiers were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at their position in Sadr City as troops were inspecting a civil military project aimed at improving living conditions, the military said.
Later, another soldier was wounded by small arms fire in eastern Baghdad, and two others in the northeast when their patrol was attacked. Seven soldiers were hurt in central Baghdad when insurgents lobbed hand grenades and attacked with small arms fire.
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2004/08/07/top.htm
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk
NAJAF (Iraq): US planes on Friday pounded with rockets the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf, including its cemetery where militiamen are held up, killing over 300 in one go.
Analysts consider it as the biggest ever operation by the US-led coalition, ever since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Columns of thick black smoke could be seen rising up from the city, as residents stayed at home with their doors bolted and fighters loyal to Moqtada Sadr prowled the streets.Power and telephone communication lines were cut.
Deserted Streets with Clouds of Smoke
Gunfire and explosions rocked Najaf on Friday as helicopters flew overhead. The streets were nearly deserted. Shops were closed and some residents near the cemetery that was the scene of much of the fighting fled with their belongings on carts. A dead woman lay abandoned on an empty sidewalk.
Fire tore through a nearby outdoor market and smoke rose from several parts of the city. The fighting on Friday dwarfed the spring clashes, residents said.
US Marines chased the militants into the massive cemetery, filled with stone and concrete buildings and ditches, which the militants had been using as a base, military officials said.
In-depth
The insurgents had taken advantage of the cemetery's location in the so-called Exclusion Zone where U.S. forces were forbidden under the truces to use as a base for attacks and a weapons storage site, said Lt. Col. Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
After the Marines attacked a police station from the cemetery early Thursday, the U.S. military retaliated, he said.
The US helicopter gunships slammed insurgent positions in the cemetery Friday and Marines were sent in to root out the remaining militants, the military said. Gunfire and explosions shook the area throughout the day.
The massive U.S. response appeared designed to quickly quash the outbreak, preventing a repeat of the spring uprising.
Targets
US helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Iraqi insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery Friday in the most intense fighting in this holy city since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military said it killed 300 militants.
The clashes between coalition forces and militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army flared in communities across the country, killing dozens of other Iraqis, according to Iraqi officials and the militants.
Eruption of Problems
The fighting threatened to re-ignite the bloody, two-month insurrection that ended with a series of truces two months ago.
A renewed uprising among the country's Shiite majority would cause severe problems for Iraq's fledgling interim government as it tries to gain popular support and coalition forces already struggling against Sunnis.
The Deadline
The Iraqi government said it was determined to crush all militias in the country, including the Mahdi Army, and Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi gave the insurgents 24 hours to leave the city.
"We believe that the end of the military operations is dependent on the exit of the armed militias from Najaf," he told reporters.
Al-Sadr's Pledge
Al-Sadr blamed all the violence plaguing Iraq on the United States, which he called "our enemy and the enemy of the people," in a sermon read on his behalf at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf.
Elsewhere
The fighting also raged in the cities of Nasiriyah, where insurgents attacked Italian and Romanian troops, and Samarra, where guerrillas attacked a U.S. military convoy. In the city of Amarah, Shiites took over four police stations Friday, before British forces counter-attacked.
Pre-dawn Clashes
Intense pre-dawn clashes hit the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where the Health Ministry said 20 people were killed and 114 wounded during two days of fighting. Separate attacks blamed on al-Sadr's followers wounded 15 American soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday.
Amid the violence, al-Sadr's aides called for a return to the truces that crumbled in the fighting that began early Thursday and asked for the United Nations and the government to step in.
Call to Government
"We call upon the government — that has announced that it is sovereign — to intervene to stop the American attacks," said Mahmoud al-Sudani, an al-Sadr spokesman.
Shiite leaders, who helped broker the earlier truces, said they were working to restore the cease-fire.
Dialogue
"We are sparing no effort to reach a peaceful settlement by opening a direct dialogue between Muqtada al-Sadr's representatives on the one hand and the transitional government on the other," Ammar al-Hakeem, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq political faction, told a Qatar-based Arabic television.
Causalities
U.S. Col. Anthony Haslam, chief of operations in Najaf, said 300 militants out of a total force of about 2,000 had been killed in Najaf since Thursday. That was among the largest activists' death tolls in a single engagement since the end of the war last year.
Two U.S. Marines and one U.S. soldier were also killed in the fighting, which wounded 12 other U.S. troops, the military said.
Arrests
Al-Zurufi, the Najaf governor, estimated 400 militants were killed and 1,000 arrested. He also said 80 of the fighters at the cemetery were Iranian. "There is Iranian support to al-Sadr's group and this is no secret," he said.
The two days of fighting in Najaf also killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 58 others, according to hospital officials.
Guerillas Attack
Guerillas attacked a convoy of U.S. Humvees at dawn in the city of Samarra, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital, witnesses said. U.S. helicopters fired rockets at insurgent positions, and the U.S. convoy pulled out.
Ahmed Jadou'a, an official at Samarra Hospital, said at least two people were killed and 16 injured during the fighting. Two houses were also destroyed.
In Amarah, British troops backed by tanks fought with al-Sadr militiamen who had seized four police stations on the outskirts of the city.
The troops secured the main police station, said Maj. Ian Clooney, a British military spokesman. It was not clear if they had recaptured the smaller police stations.
Italian troops Ambushed
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops early Friday with automatic weapons and also targeted a police station, an Italian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
The fighting, which lasted until dawn Friday, killed eight Iraqis, including five militants, and injured 13 others, according to Abdul Khuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official. There were no coalition casualties, the Italian spokesman said.
Insurgents also attacked a Romanian patrol outside Nasiriyah with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, said Gelaledin Nezir, the Romanian Defense Ministry spokesman. No injuries were reported.
Coalition Base Hit
A coalition base near Najaf, Camp Golf, was hit by mortar fire early Friday, while rounds fired at a base housing Ukrainian troops missed their target, a Polish military spokesman said. No one was hurt.
Assailants also attacked a police station in the southern city of Basra and the City Hall there, police Capt. Mushtaq Talib said.
The violence wounded three police and five civilians, hospital officials said.
Violence in Basra since Thursday killed five al-Sadr fighters, said As'ad al-Basri, an al-Sadr official in the city.
Also Friday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said four Lebanese truck drivers had been taken hostage in Iraq as they drove from Baghdad to Ramadi.
15 US Soldiers wounded in six Hours
Fifteen US soldiers were injured in attacks in Baghdad within a six-hour period, the US military said on Friday.
The incidents happened on Thursday as multinational forces battled militiamen in southern Iraq and Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of leader Moqtada Sadr.
Five soldiers were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at their position in Sadr City as troops were inspecting a civil military project aimed at improving living conditions, the military said.
Later, another soldier was wounded by small arms fire in eastern Baghdad, and two others in the northeast when their patrol was attacked. Seven soldiers were hurt in central Baghdad when insurgents lobbed hand grenades and attacked with small arms fire.
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2004/08/07/top.htm
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