BREAKING NEWS:Things go from bad to worse for Bush; Shiites protest U.S. in wake of clash
msnbc.com
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 10 — Thousands of Shiite Muslims on Friday mourned an Iraqi killed in an overnight clash with U.S. forces, many denouncing the American occupation during the funeral procession. Differing accounts of what happened in the nighttime clash, which also killed two U.S. soldiers in a teeming Baghdad slum, ratcheted up tensions between U.S. forces and and Iraq’s religious majority.
THE AMERICANS said their troops were lured into an ambush, but the Shiites maintained that U.S. soldiers opened fire first when they approached radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s headquarters in the Sadr City slum. The bloodshed came just 12 hours after a mysterious car bombing killed 10 people at a nearby police station in Sadr City.
The clash late Thursday, which wounded at least seven Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers, drew an angry reaction from Iraq’s Shiites.
Security was tight during Friday prayers, with residents loyal to al-Sadr blocking streets leading to the main mosque. Guards were stationed on rooftops and around the estimated 10,000 faithful who attended the sermon and prayers.
Afterward, there was a funeral procession for what were said to be two Iraqis killed in Thursday’s clash.
“America claims to be the pioneer of freedom and democracy, but it resembles, or indeed is, a terror organization,” Sheik Abdel-Hadi al-Daraji, an aide to al-Sadr, told the congregation. “The Americans may have forgotten that the real power rests with God and not with the wretched America.”
Staff at al-Chawader Hospital in Sadr City said one Iraqi was killed in the clash and at least seven were injured.
“No to America! Yes to martyrdom!” the crowd chanted as the two coffins arrived.
“Let me congratulate the martyrs and pray we are all granted that same fate,” al-Daraji said.
TENSIONS POINT TO TROUBLE
This tension could mean trouble for coalition forces, because the Shiite population in Iraq has shown patience with the American occupation so far, evidently feeling it had much to win from cooperating.
A clash with Shiites could open a second front for troops already facing regular attacks in the Sunni heartland of central Iraq where Saddam Hussein drew his greatest support.
The cleric al-Sadr lives in the southern city of Najaf, but Sadr City, home to thousands of young, unemployed Shiites, is his main power base.
The mainly Shiite area was known as Saddam City until Saddam’s ouster, when it was renamed for al-Sadr’s father, a Shiite cleric killed in 1999 by suspected security agents.
Still, al-Sadr, who has taken a stand against the U.S. military occupation and deployed his own armed force, has very little support among the mainstream Shiite clerical leadership.
Al-Daraji said the Americans were approaching al-Sadr’s headquarters and opened fire first in the Thursday night attack.
He accused the Americans of trying to drive a wedge between Shiites and Sunnis and claimed the U.S.-led coalition was responsible for “manufacturing crises and trying to create havoc.” But he stopped short of calling on Shiites to take up arms against the Americans.
“We want peace, but the Americans came last night thinking this is Fallujah,” said Mahdi Abdel-Zahra, 32, referring to a city west of Baghdad where frequent clashes between Iraqis and Americans have taken place. “They are wrong. We’ve never hurt the Americans in Sadr City.”
U.S. CLAIMS AMBUSH
The U.S. military said a 1st Armored Division squad riding in three Humvees was ambushed at about 8 p.m. Thursday while on routine patrol in the slum. U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. George Krivo had no comment about the claim that the U.S. soldiers had approached al-Sadr’s headquarters.
“A group of people, civilians, met with U.S. forces and said, ‘Please come in, we need to show you something important,”’ Krivo said. When the soldiers left their vehicles and followed the Iraqis, they came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, he said. Homemade bombs were also detonated.
An Army quick-reaction force helped extricate the patrol, Krivo said. He would not go into detail about what happened next but suggested the encounter lasted two hours and that he “would not characterize (it) as a raid.”
Krivo said the U.S. military would not change its policy of patrolling the heavily populated Shiite slum.
Of the growing U.S.-Shiite tensions in Sadr City, Krivo said the Americans are in an “ongoing dialogue with Shiite officials.” He didn’t elaborate.
BOMB BLAST; SPANISH LIAISON KILLED
The trouble in Sadr City started Thursday when a bomber crashed a white Oldsmobile loaded with explosives into a police station, killing himself and nine other people and wounding as many as 45. Across town, gunmen — one dressed as a Muslim cleric — also shot and killed a Spanish military attaché.
The violence came six months to the day after Baghdad fell to American forces, underscoring the predicament of a capital whose deliverance from Saddam’s tyranny has been repeatedly undermined by terrorism, attacks on U.S. forces and sectarian unrest.
The ancient city’s landscape is now lined with massive concrete blast barriers and coils of barbed wire outside hotels, government departments and along stretches of road near U.S. military bases. As in previous attacks, there was no claim of responsibility.
“It was a huge blast and everything became dark from the debris and sand. I was thrown to the ground,” said Mohammed Adnan, who sells watermelons opposite the police station.
Policemen and some in the crowd that gathered outside the police station after the explosion offered an assortment of possible culprits ranging from non-Iraqi Arab militants to Saddam loyalists and Shiite radicals angry about a cleric’s arrest.
The killing of the Spanish military attaché happened across town in the upscale Mansour area about 30 minutes before the car bombing.
Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez, an air force sergeant attached to Spain’s National Intelligence Center, was shot to death after four men, one dressed as a Muslim cleric, knocked on the door of his home, according to a Spanish diplomat in Baghdad who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Six months after Baghdad fell, the ancient city’s landscape is lined with massive concrete blast barriers and coils of barbed wire outside hotels, government departments and along stretches of road near U.S. military bases.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS THURSDAY:
U.S. troops arrested an Iraqi resistance leader believed to be responsible for scores of deadly attacks against American forces around Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. They also uncovered a factory where deadly roadside bombs were being built.
A 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a U.S. convoy northeast of Baghdad, the military said.
U.S. soldiers conducted a raid Sunday near the Syrian border and detained 112 suspects, including a high-ranking official in the former Republican Guard, the military announced Thursday. |
