Forgive the headline which may seem extreme. All I'm doing is bringing your attention to a comment from
Healing Iraq:
One can't help but notice that the clerics who usually incite holy wars in Iraq against the US occupation on the expense of Iraqis are based in countries allied to the US such as Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. On the other hand, you have Sheikh Salah Al-Din Kuftaro, son of Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, the late Grand Mufti of Syria, publicly denouncing the behaviour of Iraqi insurgents yesterday during Friday prayers at the Kuftaro mosque in Damascus. He described them as the "present day Kharijites" and their actions as "unislamic".
Zeyad's latest post also reports non-stop fighting in his neighborhood this weekend in Bagdhad, and area where fighting, if not danger, has been quite limited. Zeyad has a very reasonable manner of writing and is more or less pro-US, although events sometimes strain him, which is merely to say that while he does sometimes praise the US, and was willing to accept the hardnesses of overthrowing Saddam, he is neither afraid to be critical.
Fierce fighting has been going on in several areas of Baghdad for the last 4 hours. I was supposed to leave for Basrah this morning, as soon as I walked out of the front door I was face to face with ten or so hooded men dressed in black carrying Ak-47's and RPG's. They had set up a checkpoint right in front of our door.
Someone barked at me to go inside. Nabil was also about to leave for his school. His driver had just called him and said that he was turned back at the street entrance by another checkpoint. We looked at the main intersection and it was swarming with armed men running about and motioning drivers and pedestrians to leave the area.