Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004 |
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NAJAF, AUG.10. U.S. helicopter gunships opened fire on Shia militants hiding in Najaf's massive cemetery on Tuesday as U.S. patrols armed with speakers warned the militants to leave the city immediately or face death. U.S. tanks drove into the cemetery, explosions shook the streets and black smoke rose over parts of the city, but the fighting with the militant cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia appeared more sporadic than in recent days. A large fire broke out at a hotel about 300 meters from the Imam Ali Shrine, Najaf's holiest site, which fighters have reportedly been using as a base. Witnesses said insurgents were firing from inside the hotel, when U.S. forces returned fire.
New tactic
In a new tactic to try to quell the violence, U.S. military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers drove through the streets asking civilians to leave parts of Najaf and militants to put down their weapons and leave the city or else they would be killed. "We ask residents to cooperate with the Iraqi army and police," said a voice in Arabic through a loudspeaker. "There will be no truce or negotiations with terrorists."
Clashes in Baghdad
Small clashes also broke out in the Baghdad Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, despite a night-time curfew that was imposed on Monday. The Mehdi Army resistance forces have been targeting U.S. patrols with gunfire and have tried to set up roadblocks in the area, but the U.S. forces tore them down, said a U.S. army spokesman. There were no U.S. casualties, he said. While the U.S. and Iraqi forces were trying to quell the violence, attacks by Sunni Muslim militants persisted. A roadside bomb detonated as a U.S. military vehicle drove on a street in central Baghdad on Tuesday, slightly injuring two soldiers, the military said. Another insurgent group warned in a videotaped message it would launch a campaign of attacks on government offices in Baghdad starting Tuesday, telling employees to stay away. The uprising began to affect Iraq's crucial oil industry, as pumping to the southern port of Basra — the country's main export outlet — was halted because of militant threats to infrastructure, an official with the South Oil Company has said. About 1.8 million barrels per day, or 90 per cent of Iraq's exports move through Basra, and any shutdown in the flow of Iraq's main money earner would badly hamper reconstruction efforts. Iraq's other export line — from the north to Turkey — is already out of operation.
Returns command
In a sign of the deterioration of the situation in Najaf, the Polish military returned command in the province and neighbouring Qadisiyah province to the U.S. Marines. The Poles had received command in the two provinces only 10 days ago. AP
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