http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1281494,00.html
US-led forces today closed in on militia fighters loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr after commanders promised major operations to “destroy” the rebel Shia cleric’s Mahdi army.
In the southern city of Najaf, US troops cordoned off the old town – the ancient city around the Imam Ali mosque, where many of the fighters are sheltering – and warplanes bombarded the vast Wadi al-Salam cemetery to its north. Iraq’s interim interior minister, Hassan al-Naqib, said Iraqi police and national guardsmen had swept through the cemetery and captured 1,200 fighters, some of whom he described as foreigners. Later reports said that the US forces had stormed Mr Sadr’s house in the old town after street battles with the Mahdi army but that the cleric was not there at the time. Mr Al-Naqib denied media reports that US forces had crossed into the Imam Ali mosque, the burial place of Mohammed’s son-in-law, a revered figure among Shia Muslims. Elsewhere in the south, Hospitals in Kut reported that at least 72 people had been killed and 148 wounded as US airpower backed Iraqi police against the Mahdi army. In Amara, 20 fighters were killed in clashes with British forces. One British soldier was killed and another injured by a roadside bomb in Basra. Thousands took to the city’s streets and to Shia districts of Baghdad to demonstrate against the assault on Mr Sadr’s supporters. “Long live Sadr – America and [interim Iraqi prime minister Ayad] Allawi are infidels,” the protesters chanted. At least five civilians were killed in Najaf today, according to health workers. Hundreds if not thousands are believed to have fled the city since the ceasefire broke down last week.
The assault on the Mahdi army risks inflaming Shia anger and the stability of the interim government if the Imam Ali mosque is destroyed or damaged by the US-led forces. Mr Allawi urged Mr Sadr’s loyalists to leave the mosque and surrender. “This government calls upon all the armed groups to drop their weapons and rejoin society. The political process is open to all and everyone is invited to take part in it,” he said in a statement. A spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry said Iraqi forces would lead any assault on the mosque complex. “There is intensive fighting … the police and the national guard are heading this operation, supported by multinational forces,” Sabah Kadhim told CNN. “For us, it is a crucial test of this very early stage of the government. He [Mr Sadr] is taking advantage of the fact that our forces are not fully trained.” The violence in Najaf has also angered neighbouring Iran. “The American attacks on the most sacred Islamic city will definitely elicit a strong response from the people of Iraq,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by state-run television as saying. “They won’t forgive these crimes.” Lebanon’s leading Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, said everything possible should be done to expel US forces from Iraq. He accused the interim Iraqi government of helping the US offensive. “This government should have addressed the problems using Iraqi forces. To bring in occupation forces to control the holy sites to bomb at random, you cannot solve any problem in this military way,” he said in a statement. An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most senior Shia cleric, who is in a London hospital receiving treatment for heart trouble, said he wanted to see restraint on both sides. As clashes raged for a seventh day, US troops said they were impressed with the militia fighters’ tenacity. “I think they got a reproduction facility down there. I think they’re cloning,” Captain Patrick McFall told the Associated Press. As he spoke, a mortar exploded nearby, sending up plumes of black smoke. In response to the announcement of an assault, Mr Sadr’s loyalists in Basra threatened to blow up the city’s oil pipelines and port infrastructure. A similar threat on Monday caused oil officials briefly to stop pumping from the southern oil wells. Mr Sadr’s fighters have been battling US-led multinational forces since August 5 in a resurgence of a spring uprising that had been dormant for two months following a series of truces. “I hope that you keep fighting even if you see me detained or martyred,” Mr Sadr told his loyalists yesterday. “I thank the dear fighters all over Iraq for what they have done to set back injustice.”
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Iraq’s phase II: Deadlier than ever
By Youssef M. Ibrahim*(GulfNews – Dubai – 10 August 2004) – Iraq entered a deadlier and murkier second phase of fighting and bloodshed this past week. This is certain to deepen the American quagmire, threaten the longevity of Prime Minister Eyad Allawi’s government and, unfortunately for Iraqis, usher in a new phase of internecine killing via suicide and car bombings, such as the hideous attacks in Mosul and Baghdad against Christian worshippers. By far the most ominous new development could be a widening of the conflict that draws Iran into it. Allawi has officially named his giant neighbour, Iran, as trouble-maker-in-chief last week, accusing it of standing behind the rebellious cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and the fighting that left more than 300 dead in the holy city of Najaf. This is a serious charge as grievous damage was done to innocent people, their commerce, their homes and some of the holiest Shiite sites there. From Iran’s perspective, there is little question what happens in Najaf is its business. Any damage there cannot leave a single Iranian ruler the option of remaining neutral, regardless of whether they are among moderates or hard-liners. The Shiite religious heritage is a shared one between Iraq and Iran. It is possible to see Iran pushing a fight against American troops, but standing behind damage to Shiite shrines is not credible. Yet, Allawi, a feisty and tough customer, has now officially thrown the gauntlet, as if he were asking for a fight at a time when he has yet to demonstrate his government can protect all Iraqis against insurgents, domestic and foreign alike. Iran wasted no time pointing it out. In his toughest speech yet, former Iranian President Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani, currently head of the equivalent of the Iranian National Security Council – Majlis Tashkhis Masaleh Al Nizam – minced no words in last Friday’s sermon in Tehran, when he warned the Americans and Allawi’s government of a rise in the number of suicide bombers targeting them inside Iraq in “defence of Islam”.
New turn of events Iraqi nationalists are split over the meaning of the new turn of events. Some argue that the Iranians and their various militias and supporters started the trouble, taunting the Allawi government and the Americans. Other, equally sincere Iraqi nationalists say it is the Americans who are encouraging the whole mess in order to turn Iraq into the one area where they can trap all fundamentalist-inspired militant movements, Iraqi or foreign, and kill their members. The truth, as usual, lies in between, but the Bush administration and Iran have been heading for a high-noon duel for some time now. It is unfortunate that Allawi has chosen his camp with the Bush folks. It may cost him, and the whole Gulf region, dearly. One way or the other, “pandemonium” best describes what is coming. The present mess has three components: American, Iraqi and foreign. It would seem the new American occupation authorities wasted little time repeating the same errors of the last administration of General Ricardo Sanchez and Paul Bremmer III. They waged yet another “final” battle to “finish off” the ragtag Mahdi Army of Al Sadr, and this backfired. The Mahdi, as in the past, will disappear now and re-appear later, inside Baghdad itself – in Sadr City, home to two million Shiites, where an American helicopter was shot down in this latest fighting. Such is the nature of guerilla warfare. Inside the Iraqi camp cards have been reshuffled too. The two Shiite figures locking horns are Allawi and the young Al Sadr. Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who until now presented the Americans with some hope of boosting their views among Shiites, has conveniently left Najaf just before the fighting began, for medical treatment in London. Part of what he may have left behind too is his prestige and influence. Great Shiite religious leaders do not go away when their people come under attack. The outsiders’ card has also been thrown into the game. A real nightmare would start if Iran makes the decision – which Iranian officials assure me they have not yet done – to actively engage the harassed, tired, demoralised and overstretched American troops trapped behind their barbed wire enclaves in Iraq. This would be a real war of attrition. It must be recalled that Iran has long arms inside Iraq, which have supported over 20 years of engagement ever since the eight-year-long Iraq-Iran war that started in 1980. Iran has since built not one but several Iraqi militias, similar to the Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has a huge intelligence apparatus deeply penetrating the Iraqi army, police, security forces and government. And it has open borders from where more men and weapons can pour into Iraq. Above all, it seems not to be intimidated by American reprisals. This is all reminiscent of the famous Ho Shi Minh trail in Vietnam through which, some 40 years ago, North Vietnamese troops and arms poured into South Vietnam to produce the first serious American military defeat since World War II.
Know how to fight
Should Iran start moving its chess pieces inside Iraq what will be America’s and Allawi’s counter-strategy? One is not aware of what more the Americans can do (invade Iran?) or what Allawi has up his sleeve. Some in the Bush administration talk of bombing 50 Iranian sites, including the nuclear reactor. This would absolutely unite Iranians. And these guys know how to fight long wars and take huge losses until they prevail. As for Allawi, as tough as he is, we must remember he remains untested. * Youssef M. Ibrahim , a former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, is Managing Director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group.