A few visits from "..SPOOKY.." and everybody wants to 'talk'. Beats becoming date palm mulch, aye...!!!
"..MudTaco al-Sadrse.." is fast running out of friends too, it seems..............
U.S. Military Meets With Local Sheiks in Effort to End Shiite Insurrection in Karbala
By EDWARD WONG Published: May 23, 2004
KARBALA, Iraq, May 22 — Tribal sheiks met with American commanders here on Saturday and said they would try to persuade militiamen loyal to a rebel Shiite cleric to lay down their arms and disband, military officials said.
The meeting came after nearly three weeks of intense combat in which American officers said more than 120 insurgents were killed and which left in ruins large parts of this city's downtown area, believed to be strongholds for the militia and including buildings near two of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
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The militia, led by Moktada al-Sadr, the radical young cleric from Najaf, has been waging a six-week insurrection against the occupation forces in cities across southern Iraq.
The occupation commanders here said they were cautiously optimistic about the overture made by the sheiks. They said there was no room for negotiation with the militiamen and that their only condition for halting attacks was that the insurgents disarm and leave the city.
It appeared that the sheiks were willing to press this with the militia, known as the Mahdi Army, said Col. Peter Mansoor, commander of the First Brigade of the First Armored Division.
"It was pretty clear to me that we were approaching endgame, and that's my fervent hope," he said. "They were clearly looking for a way out. They wanted to know under what terms we would allow the militia to depart."
Colonel Mansoor added that he was uncertain what influence the tribal leaders had with the Mahdi Army, but added, "the fact they've come here to take our terms and then relay them to Moktada's militia tells me that they have some hope of success."
Colonel Mansoor said this was the third time since the insurrection began that he had met this group of local leaders, and it appeared to be the most promising of the conversations. The group that came to Camp Lima, a Polish-run military base five miles east of the city center, consisted of two sheiks, two lawyers, a businessman and a spokesman.
In recent days, militiamen have been seen hiding their weapons in bags and leaving Karbala. Some residents of the city have distributed flyers denouncing Mr. Sadr and the presence of his fighters.
Even as the discussions wound down at Camp Lima on Saturday, American commanders were planning night assaults in which they hoped to crush two remaining strongholds of the Mahdi Army. One was at a farm compound in a village called Husseiniya, nine miles northeast of Karbala. The other was at a school in downtown Karbala, immediately northeast of the extremely sensitive shrine area.
"They're trying to convince us that the Mahdi Army will be out of the area today," Lt. Col. Garry R. Bishop, commander of the First Battalion, 37th Armor, said as he briefed officers on attack plans. "We'll see. One way or another, they will be."
Military analysts said recent intelligence reports indicated that dozens of militiamen could be holed up in the farming compound, and as many as 150 in the school and surrounding buildings. Many of the 150 could be foreign fighters, one analyst said.
Fighting over the last week had been edging closer and closer to the blue-tiled Shrine of Hussein and Shrine of Abbas, dedicated to two of the most revered Shiite Muslim martyrs. But early Friday morning, American forces suddenly withdrew from the Mukhaiyam Mosque, a building they had occupied on May 12 after a pitched battle with insurgents in the area.
The mosque had become a foothold for the Americans in the dense urban landscape of downtown Karbala, and the Army had lost three men just trying to defend it from snipers and mortar teams.
Senior military officials also canceled a major offensive operation scheduled to unfold in the area early Friday. Some soldiers complained about that decision, wondering why they were giving up the mosque. American commanders said they were trying to allow more room for a political solution.
The retreat came at a time when the American military was being forced to defend itself in light of the prison scandal at Abu Ghraib and of an air attack on Wednesday near in the Syrian border in which 41 people were killed. On Friday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut and Bahrain against the American presence in the Shiite holy areas.
nytimes.com
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