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04/05/2004 Archived Entry: "Fallujah update"
Fallujah update
From UPI, since all other news outlets seem to be in some sort of a blackout.
Coalition troops clashed with insurgents across Iraq as armed militias took partial control of some cities and a confrontation with a young Shiite cleric threatens to cast the already unstable country into complete civil war.As the one-year anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime approaches, the U.S.-led coalition -- which had previously only had to fight former regime fighters and outside terror groups -- finds itself in open warfare with the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, a 30-year old junior cleric whose bombastic anti-occupation rhetoric had previously been considered an irritant.
Now his followers openly control small portions of Baghdad and stalk the streets carrying weapons, firing on coalition troops and drawing a military response that has killed at least a dozen civilians in the crossfire. Scores of Iraqis died in various clashes across the country, while at least 12 U.S. soldiers also died. But with the fluid nature of the fighting and inaccessibility of many of the conflict areas to reporters, exact figures are impossible to gauge.
At the same time that the coalition was engaged in its first sustained rebellion by portions of Iraq's Shiite population, it also was in the process of settling old scores in the western city of Fallujah, where the U.S. Marines had closed the city of 500,000 people while hunting for insurgents that have long irritated the occupation authority with sustained attacks on troops.
As the day progressed, coalition officials announced that an Iraqi judge had indicted Sadr on murder charges for the killing of another cleric a year ago as Baghdad fell. It is the same indictment that led to the arrest of his aide this weekend. Any arrest of Sadr will certainly lead to even more widespread anti-coalition violence.
Sunday night saw the first of a series of raids by the Marines against targets in Fallujah, which was the scene of the gristly killings and mutilation of four U.S. contract employees working with the Coalition Provisional Authority. By Monday the city was completely sealed off to all traffic and reports from inside the city indicated that the Marines had occupied the city center -- the first American troops to do so in months -- and that widespread fighting had commenced.
More from Healing Iraq:
Monday, April 05, 2004
A coup d'etat is taking place in Iraq a the moment. Al-Shu'la, Al-Hurria, Thawra (Sadr city), and Kadhimiya (all Shi'ite neighbourhoods in Baghdad) have been declared liberated from occupation. Looting has already started at some places downtown, a friend of mine just returned from Sadun street and he says Al-Mahdi militiamen are breaking stores and clinics open and also at Tahrir square just across the river from the Green Zone. News from other cities in the south indicate that Sadr followers (tens of thousands of them) have taken over IP stations and governorate buildings in Kufa, Nassiriya, Ammara, Kut, and Basrah. Al-Jazeera says that policemen in these cities have sided with the Shia insurgents, which doesn't come as a surprise to me since a large portion of the police forces in these areas were recruited from Shi'ite militias and we have talked about that ages ago. And it looks like this move has been planned a long time ago.No one knows what is happening in the capital right now. Power has been cut off in my neighbourhood since the afternoon, and I can only hear helicopters, massive explosions, and continuous shooting nearby. The streets are empty, someone told us half an hour ago that Al-Mahdi are trying to take over our neighbourhood and are being met by resistance from Sunni hardliners. Doors are locked, and AK-47's are being loaded and put close by in case they are needed. The phone keeps ringing frantically. Baghdadis are horrified and everyone seems to have made up their mind to stay home tomorrow until the situation is clear.
Where is Shitstani? And why is he keeping silent about this?
I have to admit that until now I have never longed for the days of Saddam, but now I'm not so sure. If we need a person like Saddam to keep those rabid dogs at bay then be it. Put Saddam back in power and after he fills a couple hundred more mass graves with those criminals they can start wailing and crying again for liberation. What a laugh we will have then. Then they can shove their filthy Hawza and marji'iya up somewhere else. I am so dissapointed in Iraqis and I hate myself for thinking this way. We are not worth your trouble, take back your billions of dollars and give us Saddam again. We truly 'deserve' leaders like Saddam.
Replies: 2 people speak up
my favorite line from that healing Iraq note was:
I have to admit that until now I have never longed for the days of Saddam, but now I'm not so sure. If we need a person like Saddam to keep those rabid dogs at bay then be it.
It reminds me of something I was thinking of before the war (a liberal hawk here - but I didn't like going in without allies, not prudent, and I believed all the blather about WMD's and Saddam's abilty to threaten, at the very least, those in the middle-east). There's an old maxim that says a people always gets the government it deserves. Why would we want to interfere with that?
That of course also means (beacause we've been very bad and selfish and arrogant and self-centered) we deserve Bush and Dick.
Regime change now - I'll be better, I promise.
Posted by dividedandconquered @ 04/05/2004 11:07 PM NY
whoa, heavy stuff, Blah3. It's easy to see why Bush is determined to stick with his pre-set deadline to (of course only on the surface/public relations front) get out of the quagmire he created. He doesn't care if a quagmire is left for others elsewhere or in the U.S. He just wants to be able to say he turned things over and therefore can't be blamed for anything that happens...of course he also won't take the blame for anything that has happened or will happen before "Operation AppleTurnover" - the codename for the quagmire turnover operation.
Posted by LML @ 04/06/2004 12:04 PM NY
