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Human shields pour into holy city
17.08.2004
1.30pm - By DONALD MACINTYRE in Najaf
Around 2000 self-styled "human shields" poured into Najaf yesterday to join Shiite insurgents holed up in the gold-domed mosque, as fresh battles in the holy city prevented a quick victory by US and Iraqi forces.
US forces backed by tanks exchanged fire with the followers of Moqtada al Sadr, the rebel Shiite cleric whose supporters barricaded inside the Imam Ali shrine were joined by the unarmed but defiant "human shields."
But as the crackle of machine gun fire echoed through the old city, armed Iraqi police turned their ire against journalists in the city.
Last night they fired warning shots at and over the Sea of Najaf hotel after arresting a correspondent from Al Arabiya in what appeared to be a continued campaign of harassment against journalists in Najaf.
As journalists protested during the arrest, a police lieutenant said above the hubbub: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. We are going to smash it up. I will kill you all. You did this all to yourselves."
www.nzherald.co.nz...
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Take a deep breath and get a grip. Putting the political question aside. Do you believe in holy cities? Have you noticed that the enemy is using their holy sites as havens and that they are launching attacks from their mosques?
There is no need to panic. Everything is going to be okay.
Najaf Prompts Talk of Secession Among Iraqi Politicians
by Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
TheNewStandard
From the disrupted Iraqi National Conference in Baghdad to the low-key threat of secession from Shi'ite leaders in southern Iraq, the entire country's future may be determined by events in the holy city of Najaf.
The National Conference, where 1,300 Iraqi delegates were to meet for three days and elect the 100-member National Council, was extended for a day to accommodate an attempt by several delegates to meet with rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf.
The conference opened Sunday to several delegates' insistence that the crises in Najaf be immediately addressed. One delegate, Yahya Mussawi, rushed the speaker's podium.
"It is time that you heard us and we ask that military operations stop in Najaf immediately and dialogue take place," he shouted before chief conference organizer Fuad Massum had him forced down, according to Agence France-Presse. AFP notes that Mussawi participated in efforts this spring to thwart Sadr's uprising.
www.antiwar.com...
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Take a deep breath and get a grip. Putting the political question aside. Do you believe in holy cities? Have you noticed that the enemy is using their holy sites as havens and that they are launching attacks from their mosques?
There is no need to panic. Everything is going to be okay.
Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
They could adhere to the rule of war, and not use religious sites for staging combat.
Such cowardly actions obvious are forcing their antagonists (us) to treat their holy sites, not as sanctuaries, but as forward HQs.
Any adult can see that this shows a deep distain for their own culture and religion.
I'd probably give them a 12 hr ceasefire to withdraw, before opening up with increasingly heavy ordnance.
Originally posted by wraith30
Instead of charging into the mosque guns blazing is it not an option to set up snipers arround the mosque. Give them 16 hours to pull out and if not then starve them out? Poping off anyone who tries to bring them supplies or who tries to sneek out? It's a longer patience game I know, but you put less people at risk and appease the local population by as littel damage as possible.
Readers sometimes complain to me that Muslims seem to have lots of holy cities and lots of mosques, so is Najaf really all that special? O.K., here are the holy cities in order of holiness: Mecca, Medinah, Jerusalem, Najaf, Karbala. Najaf and Karbala are especially holy to Shiites. There are other holy sites and cities, of course, but they are mostly sacred because of association with later saints. The five I just mentioned are sacred because of their direct association with the Prophet Muhammad, his son-in-law and vicar, Ali, and his grandson, Husain.
The Shrine of Ali is a tomb, and although it has a mosque attached to it, it is not just a mosque. It is a Shrine. Like the shrine of the Prophet Muhammad in Medinah or the shrine of Imam Husain in Karbala, it is a sacred resting place of holy remains. A lot of mosques could be damaged with impunity. These shrines cannot.
The ignoramus Marines in Najaf clearly don't know all this, and since they don't know it they don't have any business making military policy there. They have endangered all Americans profoundly by potentially spurring a whole new wave of Shiite terrorism against us, recalling the bad old days of the early to mid-1980s (when some of our present allies in Iraq, like al-Da`wa and SCIRI were attacking US targets like the embassy in Kuwait or helping take Americans captive in Beirut).
Originally posted by Kriz_4
Religion is a life based way of thinking for many people around the world. Being in a religous building means to many that they are SAFE from harm,
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Originally posted by Kriz_4
Religion is a life based way of thinking for many people around the world. Being in a religous building means to many that they are SAFE from harm,
I think US television sanitized the images of 9/11 too much. What we are left with looks like a Hollywood disaster movie we've seen too many times. We should see those people jumping to their deaths, their splattered bodies on the pavement. We should listen to the testimony of the survivors over and over again about the horror they lived through.
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
What is all this touchy-feely stuff for the enemy. Don't you know that these people would cut your heart out if they had a chance? Just how touchy feely was the 9/11 attack?
I think US television sanitized the images of 9/11 too much. What we are left with looks like a Hollywood disaster movie we've seen too many times. We should see those people jumping to their deaths, their splattered bodies on the pavement. We should listen to the testimony of the survivors over and over again about the horror they lived through.
Originally posted by EastCoastKid
WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO KICK THE INVADERS OUT? RIght, we'd be FREEDOM FIGHTERS. Well, how the hell do you think the Iraqis feel? THINK ABOUT IT!
I don't suppose you Bush supporters even understand that before the Gulf War, even after the Gulf War, most Iraqis were very pro-American. George W. Bush has blown that to hell just like everything else he's touched.
He's an idiot.