Najaf; Militants Say Holy Shrine Damaged

[mom cat]

U.S. Forces Increase Pressure on Rebels to Abandon Holy Site in Najaf; Militants Say Holy Shrine Damaged

By Abdul Hussein Al-Obeidi Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 23, 2004






NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - U.S. infantrymen engaged in fierce battles with cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militants Monday and U.S. tanks moved closer to the revered Imam Ali Shrine as the American military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to leave the holy site and end their uprising.
Late Monday, U.S. warplanes bombed the area of the Old City, and fires lit up the night sky, witnesses said. Ahmed al-Shaibany, an aide to al-Sadr, said shrapnel from the attack hit the shrine's golden dome, one of its minarets and the compound's outer wall.

The U.S. military denied damaging the shrine and said an air crew saw militants in the compound fire a rocket that clipped one of the walls and explode 10 yards outside.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBQSDB69YD.html

[leftchick]

1. I just saw some damage on BBC video.....

It was in the tiles of the Mosque. WTF is the US doing?!?

[acmavm]

2. Pushing their luck as far as they can. But hey, the chickenhawks aren't

the one's who will pay for this, it's the poor troops on the ground.

[Dancing_Dave]

3. Read this great report from the Observer and you'll understand

Why the rebels are still hanging on:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1288386,00.html

Their guys are a whole lot more MOTIVATED to liberate their country from occupation, than our guys are to occupy it. That's very understandable. What would Americans do if we were occupied?

[dawgman]

4. you and I both know that we will never win this war...

Kerry or Bush we are in for a long decade of occupation and death.

[dawgman]

5. "You will write about the boot won't you ?"

Eww

[bpilgrim]

6. talk about getting the boot

the only question that remains is how bloodthirsty are the neoCONs...

i'm sure history will record that they were worse than saddam and we all know who they compared him to :scared:



what a mess :argh:

peace

[Dover]

8. We HAVE been occupied! And what have we done?

The neocons and their corporate backers stole the election, the treasury, etc ETC.

[Voltaire99]

9. You're correct, alas. And the worst is probably yet to come.

A customary fine piece by Luke Harding. Hope he keeps his head down.

This mess is plain as day: a passionate indigenous resistance movement is holding off a technologically-superior force of unhappy economic conscripts from Wal-Mart Land. Every "gain" made by the invaders costs them dearly in the coin of local hatred. Welcome to the new Vietnam.

What'll happen next?

1) If Kerry wins and does not swiftly quit Iraq, the worsening war will doom his presidency, as Vietnam did Johnson's.

2) If BushCo and Israel attack Iran before November, public support will propel Bush to another term. He'll either win or...

3) ...he'll just steal it. In that case, with a broader new regional war breaking out, the Democrats will again fail to seriously contest the election. Instead, they will once more rally behind Bush; it's something they've had lots of practice doing.

Perilous times! We never should have invaded; we must now get out with all due haste.

[0007]

7. This will not go well with these two guys!

[Snazzy]

10. From my dupe--Front page in Muslim press

Missile damages wall of Hazrat Ali shrine: US troops pound cemetry

NAJAF, Aug 23: The US forces in Iraq pounded Najaf's cemetery and historic centre near the Imam Ali Mosque on Monday, dimming hopes of a peaceful end to a nearly three-week stand off.

A hole one metre across was punched into the outer wall of the shrine compound after heavy gunfire on Sunday night, scattering debris across the marble floor. Shia leader Moqtada Sadr's supporters said it had been caused by a missile fired by a US helicopter, although the US military denied it had targeted the shrine.

In the evening the two sides exchanged heavy fire as planes hovered overhead. "Two rockets were fired from an American Apache. One hit the western wall of the shrine and the other a nearby hotel," said a spokesman for Moqtada Sadr.

The hotel is a known resting place for Mehdi Army commanders. A US military spokesman said: "The fire was not directed at the shrine. It did not hit the wall or any other holy site in the area."

....

http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/24/top15.htm

(Dawn is sometimes on shaky ground, of course--but this is exactly the sort of thing we wouldn't hear about, at least right away. Grain fo salt, and I'll go check al-J too).

Edit:

Much the same thing there (prob. source for Dawn):

US rockets damage Najaf shrine wall

Monday 23 August 2004, 17:26 Makka Time, 14:26 GMT

...

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.

"It was around 11pm (1900 GMT) to 11.30 pm. Two rockets were fired from an American Apache. One hit the western wall of the shrine and the other a nearby hotel," said al-Sadr aide Shaikh Ali Husayn Ali.

....

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