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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (188575)	5/15/2004 3:58:01 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578938

Kuwait Shi'ites Ask U.S., Militia to Quit Iraq Sites KUWAIT (Reuters) -- An umbrella group of Shi'ite Muslim religious leaders in Kuwait on Saturday lambasted the U.S.-led forces for entering Najaf and Karbala and demanded that they pull out from the holy cities in Iraq. "We strongly demand that these forces put out the fire of strife raging in holy Najaf and Karbala by pulling out from the two holy shrines," said a statement by the group which includes an aide to top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. "The Shi'ites of the world did not expect this hasty and wrong behavior from the coalition forces in Iraq by entering the holy sites." The group, known as the "Congregation of Muslim Shia Olama in Kuwait", also demanded the pullout of militia forces of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr from the holy shrines. They were similar demands made on Friday by Kuwait-based Sistani aide Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri, the group's secretary general, who said then he feared for Sistani's life. Witnesses on Saturday said that at least two members of Sadr's militia were killed and seven wounded in fighting near the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas in Karbala, some of the most sacred ground in Shi'ite Islam. In nearby Najaf, after heavy fighting on Friday, at least two U.S. tanks took up positions outside the main police station near Imam Ali mosque. "We also demand the militias present in the holy shrines to commit to not shed blood in the holy grounds and leave them immediately," the statement said, adding the U.S.-led forces should hand over responsibility there to the Iraqi tribes "who we hope can stop the bloodshed." One third of Kuwait's indigenous population is Shi'ite and the vast majority of the rest are Sunnis. Kuwait was the launchpad for the U.S.-led war last year that toppled Saddam Hussein whose forces invaded the Persian Gulf Arab state in 1990. tehrantimes.com