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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (48003)	4/5/2004 6:52:27 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

A year ago: Message 18754546 As you can see I predicted the Israelization of Iraq. Israelization is now complete. <<Iraq will have it's Gaza Strips, Intifadas, couple of Hamas and Arafats, and a place for the miltitary to play around.>> Message 18753789 US helicopters strike Shia area in Baghdad BAGHDAD, (Reuters) - April 5 2004 10:28 U.S. helicopters fired on targets in a mainly Shi'ite Baghdad district on Monday amid fresh fighting with radical Shi'ite militiamen. Reuters journalists said they saw two Apache helicopters open fire in the Shuala neighbourhood in the northwest of the capital. A U.S. vehicle was in flames in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties. Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer earlier vowed to crack down on firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a day after battles with U.S.-led forces killed nine foreign troops and 49 Iraqis in Baghdad and near the shrine city of Najaf. The violence opened a new front for U.S.-led forces already struggling to contain attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents. It also complicates the task of U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss U.S. plans to hand sovereignty to Iraqis at the end of June and future elections. Bremer said the young Shii'te cleric was an outlaw trying to usurp legimitate authority. "We will not tolerate this. We will reassert the law and order which the Iraqi people expect," he said as he met Iraqi government ministers to discuss how to deal with Sadr. U.S. tanks patrolled the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City, where a hospital official said Sunday's battles with U.S. troops had killed 28 Iraqis and wounded 74. U.S. officials said seven U.S. soldiers had been killed and two dozen wounded in the fighting, which they said erupted after black-clad Sadr gunmen tried to occupy police stations. Gunmen loyal to Sadr occupied the governor's building in the southern city of Basra on Monday. His supporters also staged protests in the shrine city of Kerbala, witnesses said. U.S. forces sealed off the Sunni town of Falluja, where four American security guards were killed and their bodies burned and mutilated last week. Witnesses reported heavy firing on the outskirts overnight and U.S. forces closed the nearby Baghdad-Amman highway. In west Baghdad, insurgents attacked foreigners travelling in a civilian car, detonating a roadside bomb and firing small arms. A passenger, apparently American, said he had fired back. A U.S. Marine at the scene said no one had been hurt. The car -- a white all-terrain vehicle of a type often used by U.S.-led forces and contractors in Iraq -- was on fire. A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman said. Since last year's invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, 420 American soldiers have died in action in Iraq. TENSION IN SADR CITY In Sadr City, U.S. tank crews trained their guns on hundreds of Shi'ites who clustered around Sadr's office, hurling abuse and waving portraits of their leader. In Basra, about 1,000 Sadr supporters swarmed around the governor's building after occupying it overnight. Gunmen were on the roof and posters of Sadr were plastered on the gate. Britain, whose troops control Basra, said Iraqi officials were holding talks with Sadr's group to resolve the issue. Sadr had faded from Shi'ite politics in recent months while the spotlight focused on leading moderate cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and his objections to U.S. transition policies. But Sadr's Mehdi Army has said for months it is ready for holy war against the Americans if the order comes, and their sudden challenge shows splits within the Shi'ite majority. Armed Sadr militiamen tried to take over police stations and government buildings on Sunday, the U.S. military said. "Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces prevented this and re-established security in Baghdad at the cost of seven U.S. soldiers killed and more than two dozen wounded," it said. Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police earlier battled Sadr's men in Kufa near Najaf after a protest outside a Spanish-run base. Officials said 20 Iraqis, one American and one Salvadoran soldier were killed and 200 Iraqis were wounded. Sadr has been angered by the arrest of one of his aides, Mustapha Yacoubi, seized by U.S.-led forces on Saturday in connection with the killing of Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei last year. Sadr's group has denied involvement. His followers are also demanding the reopening of al-Hawza newspaper, a mouthpiece for Sadr that U.S.-led authorities closed, saying it was inciting anti-American violence. Sadr said on Sunday he would stage a sit-in at a Kufa mosque until his demands were met. "Terrorise your enemy, God will reward you well for what pleases him. It is not possible to remain silent in front of their abuse," his statement said.