US forces arrest top cleric in Iraq’s Ramadi

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/October/focusoniraq_October119.xml§ion=focusoniraq

FALLUJA, Iraq - US forces on Tuesday arrested the top cleric in Iraq’s volatile western Anbar province after fighting in the regional capital of Ramadi, witnesses said.

Cleric Abdel A’leem al-Saadi, the top Sunni cleric in Anbar, was arrested at a mosque in rebel-held Ramadi and six other people were detained at other mosques, the witnesses said.

Fighting broke out on Monday after insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at US positions inside the Anbar governorate building in Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, residents said.

Hospital officials said three civilians and a policeman were killed in the clashes.

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[truthisfreedom]

1. arrest. that's a reassuring word.

makes it sound like justice.

[izzie]

2. Smart move and just think about this

If Iraq put Jerry Farwell in jail how our fundamentalist would love it.But then they in Iraq do have the wrong God.

[Owlet]

3. Uh-oh..somebody's in trouble

Didn't Bush/Cheney just yesterday jump all over Kerry for treating terrorism as a law enforcement problem. Now, here goes this fool arresting this mullah as if he were some sort of criminal instead of shooting him deady-dead-dead.

[jmcgowanjm]

4. Resistance blows up three Apache helicopters over Hit.

Monday 10/11/04
Resistance fighters firing two C5K rockets shot down a
US Apache helicopter in Hit in ar-Ramadi province at
2:20pm Monday according to the local correspondent of
Mafkarat al-Islam. The two rockets scored direct hits on
the aircraft over the tomb of ash-Shaykh ‘Ali al-Hiti in the
city. Wreckage from the craft was scattered over a wide
area.

Resistance forces in Hit shot down two more American
Apache helicopters over the city later on Monday afternoon.
At 4:35pm the Resistance brought down the first of the two
and the second was shot down only ten minutes later with a
C5K rocket in the area of the tomb of ‘Ali al-Hiti in the city. A
total of eight US crewmen died in the downings.

US bombs mosque in Hit.

US aircraft bombed a mosque in Hit, 170km west of
Baghdad, on the pretext that Resistance fighters were
taking cover inside. In the course of the fierce fighting in the
area that had been raging for an hour, the US ground
troops called in air support.

[jmcgowanjm]

5. "They just shot them one by one" -Sy Hersh

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml

There was more rumors of atrocities around Iraq that to
Hersh brought back memories of My Lai. In the evening's
most emotional moment, Hersh talked about a call he
had gotten from a first lieutenant in charge of a unit
stationed halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border.
His group was bivouacking outside of town in an
agricultural area, and had hired 30 or so Iraqis to guard a
local granary. A few weeks passed. They got to know the
men they hired, and to like them. Then orders came
down
from Baghdad that the village would be "cleared."
Another platoon from the soldier's company came and
executed the Iraqi granary guards. All of them.

"He said they just shot them one by one. And his people, and
he, and the villagers of course, went nuts," Hersh said
quietly. "He was hysterical, totally hysterical. He went to
the company captain, who said, 'No, you don't understand,
that's a kill. We got 36 insurgents. Don't you read those
stories when the Americans say we had a combat
maneuver and 15 insurgents were killed?'