Several dead in US attack on Sadr City (nearly 2 dozen killed)

Army spokesman, Major Philip Smith: you are the fucking terrorist, bomb yourself then.

Interesting note Re:Sistani about that other matter. Weak words to use, but that he speaks on it at all, and more importantly takes Sayyid Muqtada's side, is the real point of interest that should not be ignored by those the statement is directed against.

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Several dead in US attack on Sadr City
Wednesday 22 September 2004

US tanks have raided the Baghdad area of Sadr City with aircraft bombing the area and helicopters flying low overhead, killing 22 Iraqis.

The bombings which began at around 2100 GMT on Tuesday, left 78 injured, medical sources told Aljazeera.

Clashes erupted between US forces and al-Mahdi Army fighters during the US raid and a US aircraft raked one area with heavy fire.

"Right now we are in there. We are fighting the terrorists so we can re- establish civil-military operations and get back to the reconstruction projects that the people of Sadr City want," said army spokesman Major Philip Smith.

One local resident said he counted up to two dozen US tanks and other armoured vehicles in the early hours of Wednesday on the streets in the western part of Sadr City.

--snip--

Al-Sistani condemnation

Iraq's most influential Shia cleric has said a raid by US forces on the office of Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf has contravened a peace deal negotiated last month to end fighting in the city.

Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani's office said the raid on al-Sadr's office and the jailing of some of his followers this week, was inconsistent with the deal between the US-backed Iraqi government and al-Sadr.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/english/DialogBox/PollContainer.aspx?chGuid={54C8AFC7-8C97-4C4F-B38D-D41E6169C42E}

I think I'm getting used to the Brave New World.

More Soma, please.

If "the people want" why don't they inform Allawi's police where the "terrorists" are holed up in Sadr City.

It's a suburb/slum of Baghdad with 2 million residents. If "the people want" they can poison "the terrorists" and be done with them.

An injured Iraqi man is taken to the Emam Ali hospital in Sadr City in Baghdad, September 22, 2004. U.S. tanks raided the Baghdad Shi'ite Muslim stronghold of Sadr City in the early hours of Wednesday as aircraft bombed the area and helicopters flew low overhead, witnesses said. A U.S. military spokesman in the Iraqi capital confirmed that an operation was under way but would give no details. REUTERS/Aladin Abdel Naby




People grieve for relatives killed in an U.S. offensive in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites), Wednesday Sept. 22, 2004. U.S. aircraft and tanks attacked rebel positions as fierce fighting erupted early Wednesday in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, killing at least 10 people and injuring 92 others, hospital officials said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

is not a good idea. Things are definitely getting out of hand.

onenote

He said basically, you guys fuck off, I'll see that the kid keeps quiet. Trouble is, the first guys didn't fuck off, yet the latter has actually kept a low profile--this even despite the murderous assaults on the people of Madinat as-Sadr, this most recent atrocity for example.
That the occupyers are still causing trouble in Najaf is a slap in Sayyid Sistani's face. Even if he didn't "make up" with as-Sadr recently as is apparent, that alone is something that would not be tolerated. Between that and the ongoing aggressions in Madinat as-Sadr, I doubt Sadr's interest in keeping calm will last long enough for the Jan.2005 elections to be cancelled (and of course they will, whatever the excuse given).

Despite considerable provocation.

I expect that is no accident, but I do wonder how long it
will continue. There was a piece on Jihad Unspun a day or
so ago that predicted this particular assault was coming.

On a different subject, there are some stories saying that
Col. Budanov's request for a pardon has been withdrawn.
Perhaps he thought the timing was good after the Beslan
atrocity, and has since realized his mistake.

Poor fan club. Budanov's lawyers--and his old CO, one of the great mass murderers of our time, Gen.Shamanov who is also Governator of the province that Budanov is coincidentally serving time in--wanted to sneak it in under the radar, but the plot was foiled by the meddling scoobies and their dog.. Saves Putin's ass, I guess: he'd either have the embarassing spot of endorsing another rapist and murderer, or betraying a cause celebre of his most loyal supporters.

I would think Sadr was told to bide his time, stay low, re-supply and get the army some training for fucks sake--the guys may have liked to think that Imam Ali was guiding their bullets, but they didn't bury too many Marines that way. From what I hear, experts from Fallujah and Hizbu'llah are giving them a few pointers. Sistani has a lot of his cred riding on the January 'election'--his office has used it as an excuse/explanation for their passiveness. Perhaps when that is cancelled, the next time Sadr's kids go out hunting they'll have official blessings. :shrug:
For sure, they made some sort of arrangement, but none of the people I used to get good bits of news from have any idea what. Going to bat for him when the Marines & Alawi's militia break the 'ceasefire' seems like a part of it..

His situation seems (deliberately) ambiguous, so it seems
better to have no opinion. Your thinking on al Sadr seems
likely, one would want to move the "front" somewhere else in
any case after the Najaf debacle, and the propaganda points
were already made there.

It will be rather a mess if they try to go ahead with the election,
and yet it's hard to see where the puppet government can go
without it.

Iran seems to be feeling rather feisty too, and I notice
SCIRI is, umm, making noises again; one might theorize that
al Sadr stepping into the background might be related to that,
too, in some way.

I would give a pretty penny to know the true level of coordination
among the various resistance organizations.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Manifest destiny and all. Same thing, different century, different continent.

That link is to a poll/dialog box. I went to aljazeera and found a similar story but the server is overloaded.

something strange happened there, sorry.

the *correct* al-Jazeera link:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B1C3D5F1-825F-4C90-B4A4-0DB122E1C1F1.htm

al-Jazeera's server has been very (too) busy lately, quite often I get "Server Too Busy" errors as of late.
Here's a copy of an early report (from al-Jazeera) on another site in the event the above link doesn't work for whatever reason:
http://www.matamat.com/fullstory.php?gd=25&cd=2004-09-22

And the event itself is covered elsewhere..

things are definetly getting better, right?
this is better, isn't it?
i mean george said that resolve will make things better -- well this is better, right?