- Reaction score
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- Points
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Iraq claims foreigners threatening mosque
Sunday, August 15, 2004 Posted: 1653 GMT (0053 HKT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Twenty-five heavily armed foreigners holed up inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf have threatened to blow up the building, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Sunday in a written statement.
The statement said the interim Iraqi government has ordered national guard forces not to target the mosque, and not to approach it.
The mosque, in the center of Najaf, is a holy site to Shiite Muslims. They believe it houses the tomb of the Prophet Muhammed's cousin and son-in-law.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi National Conference, intended to help shape democracy, was interrupted Sunday by protesters who demanded an end to violence in Najaf.
Minutes after the disruption, a series of mortar rounds landed less than a mile from the conference site in Baghdad's Green Zone. Two people were killed and 17 others wounded, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Najaf violence
In recent days, supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia has engaged U.S. and Iraqi forces across the country, have come to the city to protect the mosque.
Iraqi authorities have said people inside the mosque compound have fired mortars and laid land mines in the sacred compound. An al-Sadr spokesman denied those claims.
Clashes resumed in Najaf on Sunday, a day after efforts to broker a peace agreement in the Iraqi city failed, according to the city's governor.
The governor's office said rebel forces loyal to al-Sadr were fighting both Iraqi and U.S. forces. The U.S. military was checking the report.
A U.S. military patrol Sunday came under fire from al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters near Najaf's cemetery, according to CNN's Matthew Chance, who is embedded with the U.S. military in Najaf.
After taking fire from rocket-propelled grenades and snipers, Marines returned fire, killing at least two al-Sadr forces. The U.S. forces did not sustain any casualties.
After efforts to reach a truce with al-Sadr's militia failed, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie on Saturday declared that military operations would resume to "return the city of Najaf to normal city functions and to establish law and order."
Iraq's national security advisor has said the government "left no stone unturned" in its efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff in Najaf.
In Najaf on Saturday, al-Sadr, one arm wrapped in a bandage, demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq and told the crowd to defend Najaf and "be a martyr."
An aide to the cleric said al-Sadr suffered minor shrapnel wounds while he was in the Imam Ali Shrine compound.
"Nobody can force me to leave or depart you," al-Sadr said. "We got rid of Saddam [Hussein] only to have him replaced by something worse than him."
Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in Najaf for more than a week. The huge mosque compound is surrounded by Iraqi forces, but authorities have said there is no plan to storm the site.
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I hope they do blow up the mosque, because that will turn the civillians completely against the insurgents. The civillians will want the americans to kill them (the insurgents).
Sunday, August 15, 2004 Posted: 1653 GMT (0053 HKT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Twenty-five heavily armed foreigners holed up inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf have threatened to blow up the building, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Sunday in a written statement.
The statement said the interim Iraqi government has ordered national guard forces not to target the mosque, and not to approach it.
The mosque, in the center of Najaf, is a holy site to Shiite Muslims. They believe it houses the tomb of the Prophet Muhammed's cousin and son-in-law.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi National Conference, intended to help shape democracy, was interrupted Sunday by protesters who demanded an end to violence in Najaf.
Minutes after the disruption, a series of mortar rounds landed less than a mile from the conference site in Baghdad's Green Zone. Two people were killed and 17 others wounded, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Najaf violence
In recent days, supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia has engaged U.S. and Iraqi forces across the country, have come to the city to protect the mosque.
Iraqi authorities have said people inside the mosque compound have fired mortars and laid land mines in the sacred compound. An al-Sadr spokesman denied those claims.
Clashes resumed in Najaf on Sunday, a day after efforts to broker a peace agreement in the Iraqi city failed, according to the city's governor.
The governor's office said rebel forces loyal to al-Sadr were fighting both Iraqi and U.S. forces. The U.S. military was checking the report.
A U.S. military patrol Sunday came under fire from al-Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters near Najaf's cemetery, according to CNN's Matthew Chance, who is embedded with the U.S. military in Najaf.
After taking fire from rocket-propelled grenades and snipers, Marines returned fire, killing at least two al-Sadr forces. The U.S. forces did not sustain any casualties.
After efforts to reach a truce with al-Sadr's militia failed, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie on Saturday declared that military operations would resume to "return the city of Najaf to normal city functions and to establish law and order."
Iraq's national security advisor has said the government "left no stone unturned" in its efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff in Najaf.
In Najaf on Saturday, al-Sadr, one arm wrapped in a bandage, demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq and told the crowd to defend Najaf and "be a martyr."
An aide to the cleric said al-Sadr suffered minor shrapnel wounds while he was in the Imam Ali Shrine compound.
"Nobody can force me to leave or depart you," al-Sadr said. "We got rid of Saddam [Hussein] only to have him replaced by something worse than him."
Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in Najaf for more than a week. The huge mosque compound is surrounded by Iraqi forces, but authorities have said there is no plan to storm the site.
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I hope they do blow up the mosque, because that will turn the civillians completely against the insurgents. The civillians will want the americans to kill them (the insurgents).
