Post by POA on May 7, 2004 16:47:21 GMT -5
US forces attack rebels in Najaf as Britain delays sending extra troops
By Justin Huggler in Baghdad and Colin Brown
07 May 2004
There were battles around the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala yesterday as American forces attacked militiamen loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr. At least 41 fighters from Sadr's Army of Mehdi were killed in the worst fighting, in Kufa, Sadr's stronghold east of Najaf.
The American offensive came after a car bomb outside the US headquarters in Baghdad killed at least six Iraqis and one US soldier. And as the violence intensified in Iraq yesterday after a few days of relative calm, news came of
yet another kidnapping, this time of an Iraqi-American.
Najaf and Karbala contain the holiest shrines in the Shia world, and if US forces fire on them, they could ignite a full-scale Shia rebellion. Sadr has spent at least some of the past few weeks holed up in the Shrine of Imam Ali, in Najaf. US forces recaptured the Najaf governor's office, which had been under the Army of Mehdi's control. Paul Bremer, the US occupation administrator in Baghdad, made great show of appointing a new governor for the city.
Yesterday's car bombing in Baghdad came at one of the entrances to the "green zone" where the occupation authorities are based, and the most heavily guarded compound in Iraq. A suicide bomber drove a typical orange-and-white Baghdad taxi up to the checkpoint and detonated explosives. A guard tower was demolished.
It was the first large-scale attack in the capital for weeks.
In a further unnerving development, an American citizen of Iraqi origin was taken hostage. Many Iraqis have been kidnapped for ransom, but Aban Elias may be the first person of Iraqi origin to be kidnapped for political reasons. The Islamic Rage Brigade said it took Mr Elias, a civil engineer from Denver, Colorado, on Monday.
It emerged at Westminster yesterday that British defence chiefs have delayed a decision on any deployment outside the UK sector in Basra to more hostile areas of Iraq. One former senior member of the armed forces said: "They are not going to put in a paper on the deployment for at least 10 days."
Tony Blair told MPs on Wednesday that he was consulting with the US over its request for British Marines to go into Najaf to replace departing Spanish troops.
