Coalition, Shiite militiamen withdraw from Karbala

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040522/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_karbala&cid=1514&ncid=1480

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - Coalition troops and the militia of Moqtada Sadr withdrew from the centre of the holy city of Karbala, more than a month after the radical Shiite cleric launched an uprising in Iraq (news - web sites).

Ali al-Kazali, a high-ranking member of Sadr's Mehdi Army confirmed that fighters had laid down their arms, following weeks of efforts by Iraqi tribal and religious leaders to negotiate a truce with the militia.


"We have decided to remove all the (Mehdi) army presence from the centre of the city as we are waiting for the agreement with the other side to be finalised this afternoon," Kazali told AFP.


No military presence, either armed militiamen, or coalition troops could be seen in the centre of the city, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Baghdad.


All that was left was a scene of utter devastation where the heaviest fighting had taken place.

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they would have probably been loaded into cargo containers and shot

I was going to post a link to DemocracyNow! re the afghani documentary, but can't get DN to load :(

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - The Mehdi Army militia of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will end their armed presence in Najaf and Kerbala as soon as it is clear that U.S. troops have withdrawn from the holy Iraqi cities, a top aide to Sadr said on Saturday.

"We are prepared to end our armed presence the moment the occupation forces leave the holy cities and give guarantees of that," Qais al-Khazali told reporters. "There are no guarantees up to now that the occupying forces will not go back to the holy shrines."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040522/ts_nm/iraq_militia_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

Iraqis 3

US 0

44 minutes ago Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Coalition forces have not withdrawn from the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala despite claims from a leader of insurgent forces there that a pull-back from the city centre was being arranged, a US general said.



"I keep hearing those reports. We are not aware of any withdrawl going on in Karbala," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said at a press conference.


"We've repositioned some forces inside of Karbala but it's quite a stretch to consider that to be anything remotely resembling a withdrawal."



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=3&u=/afp/20040522/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_karbala_kimmitt_040522144048

That seems to be the favorite euphamism working in Iraq today. "We didn't retreat, we repositioned."

,...explains my tendency to believe little if any of what I read from any single source these days.

Crazy.

:crazy: