Hmmm.
US tanks backed by helicopters have for the first time been sent into the city's ancient cemetery to foil a spate of hit-and-run attacks by militiamen.
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In Najaf there are reports that the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque, one of Shia Islam's holiest sites, has been damaged in the fighting.
Supporters of Mr Sadr showed journalists four holes in the dome and blamed American shellfire for the damage.
However, Brig Gen Mark Kimmit, the coalition's deputy operations director, suggested that the cleric's own militia may have been responsible for the holes.
"I can just tell you by the looks of where we were firing and where Moqtada's militia was firing, I would put my money that Moqtada caused it," he said.
Kimmit now officially bugs the fuck out of me just as badly as McClellan.
Also:
An aide to Iraq's most influential Shia leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has called on both the US military and Mr Sadr's forces to leave Najaf.
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri told Reuters news agency that the fighting was spreading fast and he feared for the holy sites and Ayatollah Sistani's safety.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 May 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)
More on both Sadr and the US's situation there:
Mr Sadr knows his guerrillas are not a match for the Americans.
Scores of them have already been killed over the past few weeks without succeeding in inflicting any serious damage on the American troops.
Any accidental damage to the holy shrines will invite comparisons to what Saddam Hussein did when he bombed the Imam Ali Shrine to suppress the Shia uprising in 1991
Furthermore, he is not particularly popular.
Apart from the core support of his followers - estimated in the tens of thousands - he does not enjoy the backing of the wider Shia community.
He is also seen as a liability by the senior Shia leadership, be they secular or religious.
Residents of Najaf and Karbala want him and his militia out of their cities.
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In the past, the Americans said they would not launch an all-out assault on the militia for fear of heavy collateral damage and the risk of damaging any of the holy shrines.
But there have been suggestions that the Americans have now received a tacit green light from senior Shia leaders to drive Mr Sadr and his militia out of the holy cities.
The American troops have to tread a tight rope walk: any accidental damage to the holy shrines will invite comparisons to what Saddam Hussein did when he bombed the Imam Ali Shrine to suppress the Shia uprising in 1991.
This is the last thing they want at the end of a week when the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison has already dealt a serious blow to their credibility in Iraq.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 May 2004 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)
Kerbala cemetary is one of the holiest sites for shias, probably more so than the mosque. (It's holy because relatives of the 3rd (?) imam were killed their by sunnis in the 8th century (2nd by the islamic calander). Fighting there is a spectacularly bad move.
― Ed (dali), Friday, 14 May 2004 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)
Well, I think it's clear that Sadr's crew KNOW that and are inviting it in, which is why they're being looked very dimly upon by Sistani etc.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 May 2004 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)
true, but there is the question of restraint, or at least not falling into a battle like that that could loose them the war. Time and Time again the US, and all big modern armies, have found that you can only win if you fight on your own terms. (At least since 1936).
― Ed (dali), Friday, 14 May 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)