US troops threaten to cross Shia 'red line'

[candy331]

US troops threaten to cross Shia 'red line' to enter Najaf
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
26 April 2004


American troops will enter parts of the holy city of Najaf to crush the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr but will avoid its sacred sites, a US general said yesterday.

Shia leaders have warned there will be an explosion of anger among the 15 to 16 million Iraqi Shia if US soldiers enter Najaf, where Imam Ali, the founder of their faith, is buried in a golden-domed shrine.

"We're going to drive this guy into the dirt," said Brigadier General Mark Hertling, the deputy commander of the 1st Armoured Division. "Either he tells his militia to put down their arms, form a political party and fight with ideas not guns, or he's going to find a lot of them killed."

These are fighting words from General Hertling which imply that Iraq is on the verge of a new convulsion as attacks on US forces are becoming more sophisticated and wide-ranging. The assault on Iraq's two main oil terminals off the port of Umm Qasr in the Gulf on Saturday by three suicide boats loaded with explosives demonstrated the ability of the insurgents to constantly surprise their enemies. .

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=515274

[TahitiNut]

1. More death & democratization?

The obscene Busholini regime seems quite able to find insane field generals. He should've been kept in Fort Silly.

On edit: Fort Hoodlum, actually. :eyes:

[NMDemDist2]

2. God preserve them all

i am so sick of all this, can't imagine the horror there.

[jean]

3. sounds like a bull in a china closet to me - are they going to tiptoe?

[BeHereNow]

4. NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD AT ALL.

The fuse is officially lit on a very tightly packed
powder keg.
I have a feeling we are going to see utter chaos now.
BHN