Shiite militants seize public buildings in central Iraqi city

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040405/wl_afp/iraq_unrest_shiites_kufa&cid=1512&ncid=1480

KUFA, Iraq, (AFP) - Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr seized the main police station and other public buildings in this central Iraqi city Sunday, capping a day of violent clashes with US-led coalition troops.


An AFP correspondent saw them move into government institutions only hours after clashes broke out between demonstrators and coalition troops near a Spanish base outside the holy Shiite Muslim city of Najaf, south of Kufa.


Twenty Iraqis were killed in the fighting, which also claimed the life of one Salvadoran soldier serving under the Spanish banner, according to the US-led coalition. Some 200 people were wounded, with coalition forces saying one US soldier was injured.


"We deployed the Mehdi Army (Sadr's militia) in administrative buildings and police stations to protect them against looters," said Sheikh Fuad al-Tarfi, the head of Sadr's press office in Kufa.

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[expatriot]

1. We can not fight two urban wars simultaneously in Iraq

I wouldn't doubt that the Fallujah counter-offensive has been postponed because of the Shia uprisings... now the Shia are taking control of cities themselves. The Shia uprisings actually present a more immediate, strategic and tactical threat to the US since their cities are along our vital supply line up from Kuwait.

[bemildred]

2. Yes, I was thinking of that earlier.

The initiative has been taken away.
"We" will have to try to get it back, but I would wager
that Fallujah will not sit there while we try to get things
back under control with the Shia.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. What about Mary Anne?

Mike Mulligan was sure that his steam shovel, Mary Anne, could dig more in one day than 100 men could dig in a week!

[bemildred]

6. You figure we will call in the Death Star(tm)? nt

[DS1]

7. Then why don't we put him back in charge?

:eyes:

[RainDog]

8. Who does want the gloves to come off??

http://www.juancole.com/

Incompetence or Double-Dealing in Coalition Management of Iraq?

The Coalition decision to provoke a fight with Muqtada al-Sadr's movement only three months before the Coalition Provisional Authority goes out of business has to be seen as a form of gross incompetence in governance. How did the CPA get to the point where it has turned even Iraqi Shiites, who were initially grateful for the removal of Saddam Hussein, against the United States? Where it risks fighting dual Sunni Arab and Shiite insurgencies simultaneously, at a time when US troops are rotating on a massive scale and hoping to downsize their forces in country? At a time when the Spanish, Thai and other contingents are already committed to leaving, and the UN is reluctant to get involved?

One answer is that the Pentagon prevented the State Department from running the CPA. State is the body with experience in international affairs and administration. The civilians in the Department of Defense only know how to blow things up. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith staffed the CPA with Neoconservatives, most of whom had no administrative experience, no Arabic, and no respect for Muslim culture (or knowledge about it). They actively excluded State Department Iraq hands like Tom Warrick. (Only recently have a few experienced State Department Arabists been allowed in to try to begin mopping up the mess.) The Neocons in the CPA have all sorts of ulterior motives and social experiments they want to impose on the Iraqi people, including Polish-style economic shock therapy, some sort of sweetheart deal for Israel, and maybe even breaking the country up into three parts.

The Washington Monthly's Who's Who of Neocons in Iraq helps explain the extreme incompetence and possibly double-dealing of many in the CPA. Sept. 11 Commission member Philip Zelikow, who is close to the Bush administration, admitted on Sept. 10, 2002, that the ulterior motive of the Bush administration for the Iraq War was to "protect Israel," according to the Asian Times.

I have long been a trenchant critic of the Sadrists. But they haven't been up to anything extraordinary as far as I can see in recent weeks. Someone in the CPA sat down and thought up ways to stir them up by closing their newspaper and issuing 28 arrest warrants and taking in people like Yaqubi. This is either gross incompetence or was done with dark ulterior motives that can scarcely be guessed at.

And on April 3 his chief aide in Najaf was suddenly arrested along with 13 other members of his organization, and the Coalition forces are put into violent conflict with his organization, which leaves 7 US soldiers dead. The Army is unlikely to forgive or forget; but who provoked it and why? I'm not even in Iraq and I could have predicted to you the consequences of doing what the CPA has been doing.

----

...and I have to say that I also wonder about the deaths of those corporate military personnel, as horrid as the thought is...one of them was a "movie star," even...and their deaths have worked wonders to enrage blood lust in America...and Americans, as this poster shows, don't really care who is Sunni or who is Shia.

why were they in Falluja without the marines backing them after TEN DAYS of having the marines hit the city -- killing many, many civilians (and, Cole has had excellent reports on what has been happening, and Billmon, at his Whiskey Bar blog has noted the reports of fighting.)

I feel like we're being played by some very skillful players.

[markses]

9. Oooooh, baby

Doesn't it just have you all tingly inside to think of it....:eyes:

Sick.

[Kool Kitty]

11. You're right.

That's the way we'll win their hearts and minds. Remember when the yappers for this misadministration said that the worse things got, the better we are actually doing in Iraq? Well, judging by the past week's events, this must qualify as a howling success.

[markses]

10. Everyday that the Marines don't enter Fallujah

Is another day when (segments of) the population there can

• Propagandize and convert others
  
• Set up booby traps on approach routes, including multiple fields of IEDs
  
• Barricade buildings
  
• Establish interlocking fields of fire
  
• Improve communication and coordination plans for the assault
  
• Establish distance measurements and signals for mortaring
  
• Stockpile supplies and weapons at key locations
  
• Train in urban tactics
  
• Dig tank traps
  

I would say "etc.," but I think it's implied that this list is not exclusive. Point being, we have 4,000 Marines set to clean out Fallujah, and it looks as if they'll be in for some resistance. Could get ugly.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The US will simply give these up to the Shia

Watch, the Shiites will slowly take control due to the power vacuum.
The US military doesn't want to lose anymore people over this. As long as the military are safe in their own forts, and have control of the oil, they could care less what goes on in these other cities.