Dahr Jamail: Government Lies Over Najaf 'Cult' Battle Exposed

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47521/

Government Lies Over Najaf 'Cult' Battle Exposed

By Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, IPS News. Posted February 2, 2007.

The Iraqi government lied about the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday aided by American forces, with the possible motive of stifling growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area of Najaf.

Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS reporters in Iraq.

Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad. One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of the Iraqi security force were also killed.

"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe said. "We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the soldiers."

- snip -

Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.

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At least as far as Bush** and his war-profiteering cronies are concerned.

by the minute. The original spin stunk to high heaven.

Much of the killing was done by U.S. and British warplanes