As with the last threads, updates will be at the top of the page with previous posts in the extended entry below. For the two earlier threads click
here and
here.
Update [2004-8-22 13:27:7 by mitch2k2]:Gone Fishin'
Have to. Wars and rumours of war make a heart heavy. Let me point you to
paper tigress' Iraq timeline thread while I'm gone.
Please recommend tigress' diary, to keep the war (Iraq, not Vietnam) on the front page. Breaking: Lid's Back Off Update [2004-8-22 4:10:57 by mitch2k2]:Whys is it I always feel like the bearer of bad news? Car bomb blew in Baghadad about an hour and a half ago,
according to AP. 45 miles north of Baghdad actually; the
greater Baghdad metropolitan area, let's say.
A car bomb exploded north of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing two people and injuring four others, including a deputy provincial governor, police said.
The car exploded in Khalis, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, said police Gen. Waleed al-Azawi, chief of police for Diyala province.
For what it's worth, I have never thought the source of the car bombs to be the Mahdi Army, nor would I attribute to them the rash of kidnappings/beheadings that we saw some weeks back. This is another force at work here, whether Sunni Iraqi insurgents, Tawid and Jihad, "foreign elements,", or some
other element, some
other parties with
an agenda of their own.
Also, as
paper tigress mentions in the comments below, fighting is back in style in the old city. I've been unable to find anything on the fires, other than the Repubblica clip and the story linked and pasted below from the Australian television station.
I'm not sure if the reccomended diaries algorithm will let this thread stay up much longer than through the night, but if events warrant (and who doesn't think they will?), I'll start up part IV. Soon, though, sleep. See you back here and at
The Thorn Papers.
[editor's note, by mitch2k2]Please recommend if you'd like to see this stay on the front page. Keep checking back, page will be updated throughout the day. And for even more, on this and other topics, be sure to visit
The Thorn Papers.
Update [2004-8-21 22:37:22 by
mitch2k2]:Still digging on the blaze, but for now, here's some interesting points from tomorrow's
WaPo write-up:
Seeking to encourage a peaceful resolution to the standoff, U.S. forces paused offensive operations and patrols that might appear provocative. Sadr's aides had complained that the last attempt to negotiate a settlement, on Tuesday, was undermined by combat operations.
"No one can say we're not giving them a chance to work this thing out," said Army Maj. Bob Pizzitola, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division, which patrols the vast Valley of Peace cemetery north of the shrine with U.S. Marines. The unit's log of enemy contacts included 13 entries over a period of 12 hours.
"Normally we have 13 in an hour," Pizzitola said. "This is one of the slowest days we've had since this started."...
On U.S. military bases near Najaf, planning and drills continued in preparation for a resumption of offensive operations against the Mahdi Army. But as the hold on fighting continued through Saturday, officers and troops groused privately that Sadr was buying time. By using the shrine as ransom, they said, the rebel was angling to keep his militia intact to fight another day.
The suspension of offensive operations, however, did not extend to Kufa, the city adjoining Najaf that is also a Sadr stronghold. In an operation early Saturday, Marines stormed a police station held by Sadr forces, killing several militiamen and detaining more than two dozen young men found in a basement.
Update [2004-8-21 22:25:28 by mitch2k2]:Najaf is burning. Have only seen one instance of reporting so far, ut am looking for further confirmation. For now, from
SBS TV in Australia:
A large fire was reported to be blazing close to the Imam Ali mosque in Iraq's holy city of Najaf.
Militants loyal to cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr have been holed up in the mosque for several weeks, surrounded by US forces.
The latest clashes came after talks with religious authorities failed to end the siege at one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
Around 1,000 people have gathered in the shrine and vowed to act as human shields to protect the holy site.
Meanwhile, there's growing concern that an Italian journalist missing in Iraq since last Thursday has been kidnapped and his driver killed.
Update [2004-8-21 21:8:11 by mitch2k2]: Via AP:
Early Sunday, U.S. warplanes bombed Najaf's Old City, the scene of much of the fighting, and the sounds of shelling could be heard in the streets, witnesses said. The U.S. military could not confirm the bombing, but said operations in Najaf were ongoing.
On Saturday, clashes between U.S. troops and al-Sadr fighters were brief but heavy, punctuated by gunfire and explosions, with one blast hitting the street 50 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine at the center of the standoff.
Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said U.S. troops came under mortar attack in the Old City and destroyed two militant mortar positions with gunfire and an Apache helicopter attack.
The fighting died down after about 45 minutes, returning the city to the relative calm that it has seen.
Still, the flare-up reflected the danger that peace efforts could fall apart once again, mired in last-minute delays.
And from the same piece, the daily tragedy.
Violence continued Saturday elsewhere across Iraq:
_Insurgents bombed an oil pipeline in Berjisiya, 20 miles southwest of the southern city of Basra, setting it ablaze, said Lt. Mohammed al-Mousawi of the Iraqi National Guard. The pipeline had been closed for a week due to threats, and the attack did not appear likely to effect exports.
_Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military vehicle in Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said. As of Friday, 949 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations here in March 2003, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
_A Polish soldier was killed and six more were injured when a car bomb exploded near their convoy outside the city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad; Polish troops exchanged gunfire with the insurgents, killing some of them, Maj. Krzysztof Plazuk said. The death brought to 10 the number of Polish soldiers killed in Iraq.
_ An Iraqi National Guard soldier was killed and two guardsmen and three civilians were wounded when a bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul, a guard official said.
_ Assailants detonated a roadside bomb after a U.S. convoy drove by in Baqouba, 35 miles outside of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring four, a hospital official said. A separate roadside bomb exploded in Sabtiya, near Baqouba, after a U.S. convoy passed, killing a street cleaner and wounding another Iraqi.
_ In Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead Lt. Col. Saad Smayer, a senior police officer, as he left home for work, police said.
Update [2004-8-21 19:49:51 by mitch2k2]:
Reuters has
fleshed out their reporting some, and in addition to the AC-130 reportage, there is this information regarding the difficulties surrounding the handover of the keys to the shrine:
TALKS HIT A SNAG
A top Sadr aide said talks between the fiery cleric's representatives and Iraq's top Shi'ite religious authorities were continuing with a view to handing the shrine over to the control of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sistani, the most influential cleric in the majority Shi'ite country, is in London recovering from surgery.
But the aide, Ali Smeisim, said the talks had hit a snag over a request by Sadr's side that Sistani send a delegation to take an inventory of precious items in the mosque -- thought to include jewelry, relics and carpets -- to head off any claim that Sadr's men had stolen anything from the shrine.
The Imam Ali mosque is the holiest Shi'ite shrine in Iraq.
"We were told by people in Sayyed Sistani's office that they cannot form the committee in the current circumstances. We told them that Sayyed Sistani has representatives in Najaf ... and we believe a committee can be formed," Smeisim told reporters.
Sadr's aides had earlier said that his militia would continue to guard the mosque after any handover, precisely the outcome that the two-month-old government wants to prevent....
..."TRAITORS"
In the shrine, a teenager hacked with a pick at a block of ice to help cool Sadr's fighters, who yelled slogans vilifying Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has called on them to lay down their weapons and leave.
"We are winning, we will win over Iyad Allawi and the traitors collaborating with the Americans," they chanted.
Some held banners that said: "Where is the bullet that will grant me martyrdom?"
Sadr's uprising has fueled fears of disruption to Iraqi oil production and has helped push crude prices to new highs.
Saboteurs detonated an explosive near an oil pumping station in southern Iraq on Saturday but caused only minor damage, witnesses said.
Iraq's Health Ministry said on Saturday morning that at least 21 Iraqis had been killed and five wounded in Najaf over the past 24 hours. Three people were killed in Baghdad, where U.S. troops have fought Shi'ite gunmen in the Sadr City slum.
The U.S. military said insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military vehicle in southern Baghdad on Saturday, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
In a separate attack, two U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded on Friday by a roadside bomb near Samarra.
Update [2004-8-21 18:47:41 by mitch2k2]: More from
Reuters on the (same?) AC-130 attacks on Sadr's forces in southern Najaf, near the Imam Ali Shrine:
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - A U.S. military plane unleashed rapid cannon fire on positions held by Shi'ite rebels in the sacred city of Najaf early on Sunday, a Reuters witness said.
The bursts came from an AC-130 gunship. There was no word on casualties after the attack that followed blasts and shooting. Fresh gunfire could also be heard.
The bursts of cannon fire, which lit up the area attacked with white flashes, were followed by a blast.
AC-130 planes pounded rebel targets late on Thursday but Shi'ite militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr remain defiant, holed up inside the Imam Ali shrine, ringed by U.S. troops.
Off to find reports from other sources.
Update [2004-8-21 17:23:48 by mitch2k2]:
AC-130's in Najaf, blasts, and now blazing. Via
Reuters:
A large fire was blazing in Najaf Saturday after a series of blasts and gunfire as a U.S. AC-130 plane circled overhead, a Reuters witness said.
It is not clear what caused the fire which appeared to be in the south side of the sacred city where militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are holed up in the Imam Ali shrine and under siege by U.S. forces.
Update [2004-8-21 16:43:43 by mitch2k2]:
News from inside the shrine, by way of
Alastair Leithead of the BBC, who is in Najaf and, it seems, in and out of the compound. It sounds as though nothing has yet been resolved:
A main road marks the end of American control and the start of the snipers and defensive positions of the Mehdi Army.
We crossed it with caution, arms raised in surrender - a white T-shirt acting as a flag in front.
The American tank appeared to ignore us; the armed supporters of Moqtada Sadr welcomed us as we picked our way through broken glass and debris, shrapnel and bullet holes peppering the street.
The men seemed in good spirits, one who saw the camera immediately pulled his ammunition belt across his chest and lifted his gun in the air - the other hand gestured a victory sign.
They joked with us - "Have you got your press passes?" one said. "Because if the Iraqi police are in the shrine you will have to show them or you'll be arrested."
He burst into laughter - the government gave a statement saying the shrine was in the hands of the police and that 400 fighters had been arrested.
It was clear the only people controlling the streets of Najaf's old city were the heavily armed supporters of Mr Sadr, the young cleric who has helped plunge the interim government deep into crisis only weeks after it assumed control of the country....
... All the final warnings from the interim government have come to nothing - contradiction, broken promises and empty threats have characterised this crisis.
Moqtada Sadr's spokesman in the shrine said control would be passed on to the higher Shia religious authority - a possible chance for a settlement.
But then he added the Mehdi Army would stay on the streets outside the courtyard to protect the holy city - not what the government demanded.
And so the interim government, committed to action but afraid to damage the Imam Ali shrine, is losing credibility.
The interior ministry was at the very least wishfully thinking, at the worst lying, when it issued its statement over control of the shrine.
Mr Sadr, wherever he might be, also needs to come out of this appearing not to have backed down.
It is not going to be an easy stalemate to crack.
What happens next is not a question that can be answered by those who call themselves "human shields" in the shrine courtyard.
They continue to pray for peace as war rages on around them.
Full on fighting seems to have returned to Najaf, and the talks surrounding the handover of the Imam Ali Shrine have broken down as well. Sistani will take control, he says, but only after all the fighters have vacated the site. From Reuters, a report on the fighting:
Fighters loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with U.S. troops in Najaf on Saturday after talks with religious authorities to end a siege at the city's holiest shrine ran into difficulties.
Explosions from mortar bombs and rocket propelled-grenades echoed through the alleyways of the old city in Najaf, wrecking a day of relative calm in a two-week Shi'ite Muslim uprising that has helped drive world oil prices to record highs.
Militiamen had earlier brandished weapons around the Imam Ali mosque, dampening hopes that an offer by Sadr to hand the shrine over to the clerical establishment would end the siege, the biggest challenge yet faced by Iraq's interim government.
"Bring those Americans here to fight hand to hand," one of Sadr's followers said before the latest outbreak of fighting.
"They are cowards. They stay thousands of feet away in their airplanes. They are scared, they know we will slaughter them," he said, biting his finger for emphasis.
Juan Cole this morning surmised that Sistani would, should he agree to take control of the shrine wile Moqtada's figthers are still inside the compound tie himself directly to the movement, and imply his sheltering of the fighters. Therein lies the stalemate in handover negotiations.