US rockets damage Najaf shrine wall

[Junkdrawer]

First report I've seen detailing the damage:



US occupation forces have hit a part of the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, causing damage to its outer wall, as fierce fighting continues.

Director of the al-Sadr office in Nasiriya Aws al-Khafaji told Aljazeera the damage occurred during clashes between the occupation forces and the al-Mahdi Army on Sunday night.

Supporters of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said US aircraft had fired a rocket into the outer western wall of the mosque compound, news agency AFP reported.

The US military denied that the shrine had been targeted.

There was a dent in the wall measuring about 1 square metre and 30 centimetres deep, with rubble and spent parts of a rocket littered on the marble floor, an AFP correspondent said.

...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DB51A68A-569C-4109-A700-87F398E3FA31.htm

[Spinzonner]

1. Lighting the fuse

of a country-wide explosion.

It doesnt matter if it was targeted, the offended won't ask or care.

[Endangered Specie]

2. Someone teach our boys how to aim.

[chiburb]

3. OK, so riddle me this:

What would happen if 1,000,000 Iraqis marched from Baghdad to Najaf to surround the mosque? A literal "human shield"?

I don't doubt for one second that the place is historically holy, but why sit and wait for us to destroy or damage it? If it's that important, why doesn't the citizenry come out?

[jmcgowanjm]

4. They have. Est that Najaf is double the size since Shrine attacked

The 8-Day Battle for Najaf:
Showboating Marine Officers Pissed On The Chain
Of Command And Their Troops Paid The Price

18 August 2004 By Alex Berensen and John F. Burns, The New York Times

Marine commanders in Najaf acknowledge that they did
little planning for the battle, but say they gambled that they
could reach the walls of the Old City so fast that they
would outrun the political firestorm sure to
result.
 
"We just did it," said Maj. David Holahan, second in command
of the Marine unit in Najaf.

GI Special:
[e-mail]
8.22.04

Note that for the second nite running the Mosque CNN
uses as backdrop in reporting from Baghdad was dark.

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

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