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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Techplayer who wrote (7568)	4/4/2003 10:32:15 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

As the engineers strapped explosives to the legs of the horse that Mr. Hussein sat astride, Army tanks blocked entry to the boulevard. Hundreds of men and boys crowded on nearby street corners. The blast, when it came, was met with rousing (Iraqi) cheers. ... Then the Iraqi colonel and his men began speaking over a loudspeaker, proclaiming an uprising against Mr. Hussein's government. When they were finished, residents snapped pictures of friends on top of the pile of ruins of the statue, or posed with the soldiers. Then came questions for the nearest available Americans. "When Saddam Hussein goes?" Ali Salah asked. "Not in Najaf. Saddam in Baghdad." ...The Shiites have lived unhappily under the rule of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party for more than 20 years. One sign of how twisted ordinary life had become here was the paramilitary use of public buildings. All of the 24 schools in this region inspected by soldiers from the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division had large quantities of arms stored in classrooms, according to Maj. Pierre Gervais. "At least 1,000 mortar rounds, hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades, 1,200 antipersonnel mines, 250 antitank mines," Major Gervais said, listing the confiscated ammunition. Lt. Col. Joseph Anderson added, "The schools were the armories." Of all the sensitive public sites, none carries greater weight than the mosque at the tomb of Ali. The Iraqis have accused the Americans of attacking the site. A spokesman for the Army said on Wednesday that paramilitary fighters loyal to Mr. Hussein were firing on Americans from the mosque. That claim left American soldiers on the ground here puzzled. Lt. Col. Ben Hodges, the commander of the First Brigade, which is responsible for that part of the city, said he knew nothing about paramilitary use of the mosque. "I have yet to find a soldier or leader who heard or saw firing from the mosque," Colonel Hodges said. He added that buildings adjacent to the mosque had been used by the paramilitary fighters, and these had been destroyed. This morning, a delegation of soldiers set out to visit Ayatollah Ali Alsestani, the leading Shiite imam, in hopes of discussing a new government for the town. Ayatollah Alsestani had been under house arrest by the Hussein government for at least a decade, military officials said, but the advance of American troops into the city this week sent his captors fleeing. As the soldiers turned toward his residence, a group on the street became alarmed — stirred up, Army officials said, by Baath Party agitators who shouted that the Americans were coming to arrest the cleric. In response, the soldiers dropped to one knee, and their leader, Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, quickly called off the visit. "It got very intense there," Colonel Hughes said. The Americans plan to return to the ayatollah on Friday. nytimes.com