Iraq Deploys Guardsmen Outside Mosque in Najaf

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-najaf25aug25.story
Iraq Deploys Guardsmen Outside Mosque in Najaf
Thirteen U.S. troops are wounded in a battle nearby. Defense minister warns the cleric he must surrender or risk attack.
By T. Christian Miller and Edmund Sanders
Times Staff Writers

August 25, 2004

NAJAF, Iraq — The U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government sent its national guard troops into the streets outside one of Islam's most sacred sites for the first time Tuesday and threatened to kill or imprison the cleric whose militant followers are holding the shrine.

The moves came as a chaotic all-night battle for control of a parking garage and other buildings west of the Imam Ali shrine left 13 U.S. Marines wounded and at least five Al Mahdi militiamen dead, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. pounded the buildings in the Old City with more than a dozen. artillery rounds and gunfire from AC-130 warplanes in a battle that continued this morning.

A U.S. military doctor on the scene said some of the Marines became casualties of "friendly fire" as they were caught between two tank positions and hit by cannon fire.

The Iraqi troops, patrolling with U.S. military advisors, conducted house-to-house searches here and helped secure a cordon around the gold-domed Imam Ali Mosque, which forces loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr have held since the standoff began nearly three weeks ago.<snip>

[Barrett808]

1. The "Iraqi face" of the occupation n/t

[daleo]

2. I think we know which "Guardsmen" will do the fighting

And it won't be the Iraqis. Most of them have wisely decided not to kill their countrymen for the sake of a foreign government.