ss-zari
08-16-2004, 09:29 AM
Iraqi desertions hinder joint effort to end revolt
August 16, 2004
BY HANNAH ALLAM, TOM LASSETER and DOGEN HANNAH
FREE PRESS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a renewed assault Sunday on Shi'ite militiamen in the city of Najaf in a risky campaign that was marred from the outset by the desertion of dozens of Iraqi troops who refused to fight their countrymen.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in the fighting in Najaf on Sunday, a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's administration announced that fighting would resume after negotiations between government officials and aides to militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr failed to end the 10-day rebellion.
Sunday's showdown in Najaf was troubled even before the fighting resumed. Several officials from the Iraqi Defense Ministry said that more than 100 Iraqi National Guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam. An Iraqi army battalion generally consists of 600-900 soldiers. Neither U.S. military officials nor Iraqi government officials would confirm the resignations.
"We received a report that a whole battalion threw down their rifles," said one high-ranking defense ministry official, who didn't want his name published because he is not an official spokesman. "We expected this, and we expect it again and again."
Raad Kadhemi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, said, "We salute our brothers who abandoned participating in the fight against the Mahdi's Army," as al-Sadr's militia is known.
The failed cease-fire talks, desertions and renewed fighting further undermined Allawi's leadership just as Iraq was poised to take its first step toward free elections by picking a national assembly.
Enraged over the fresh violence in Najaf, a group of delegates threatened to walk out of the national conference in Baghdad unless the government imposed an immediate nationwide cease-fire.
It will be difficult, if not impossible, for Allawi to establish his leadership and prod the country toward democracy without crushing his militant opponents, not only in the Shi'ite south but also in the former strongholds of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein north and west of Baghdad. To do that, Allawi must rely on unpopular U.S. troops amid charges that he's a U.S. puppet.
Najaf's old city was chaotic Sunday, with street fighting between al-Sadr's rebels and U.S. troops that have established a cordon around them. Dozens of explosions from tank shells and mortars as well as constant small-arms fire shook Najaf's vast cemetery, where Mahdi's Army fighters have been battling U.S. troops since the violence broke out Aug. 5.
An explosion damaged the outer wall of the Imam Ali shrine on Sunday afternoon, a spokesman for al-Sadr said. It was unclear whether U.S. weapons were responsible.
Several Iraqi colonels inside the Defense Ministry command center, a heavily guarded palace that serves as headquarters for U.S.-led forces, said they would resign immediately if senior officers ordered them to serve in Najaf.
"I'm ready to fight for my country's independence and for my country's stability," one lieutenant colonel said. "But I won't fight my own people."
At an Iraqi National Guard base near the border of Sadr City, the vast Baghdad slum that is an al-Sadr stronghold, 1st Sgt. Khalid Ali described the death threats he and other Iraqi troops have received from the Mahdi's Army. He drew distinctions between fighting fellow Iraqis and fighting militiamen, whom he holds responsible for the deaths of two of his relatives.
"We do not fight our brothers, we fight against those people who are sabotaging our country. The Mahdi's Army is not Shi'ite, they are saboteurs," Ali said.
As the national conference met in Baghdad in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, three mortar rounds struck a bus station. At least two people were killed and 17 wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier hours before the conference began. At least 931 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since March 2003.
August 16, 2004
BY HANNAH ALLAM, TOM LASSETER and DOGEN HANNAH
FREE PRESS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a renewed assault Sunday on Shi'ite militiamen in the city of Najaf in a risky campaign that was marred from the outset by the desertion of dozens of Iraqi troops who refused to fight their countrymen.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in the fighting in Najaf on Sunday, a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's administration announced that fighting would resume after negotiations between government officials and aides to militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr failed to end the 10-day rebellion.
Sunday's showdown in Najaf was troubled even before the fighting resumed. Several officials from the Iraqi Defense Ministry said that more than 100 Iraqi National Guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam. An Iraqi army battalion generally consists of 600-900 soldiers. Neither U.S. military officials nor Iraqi government officials would confirm the resignations.
"We received a report that a whole battalion threw down their rifles," said one high-ranking defense ministry official, who didn't want his name published because he is not an official spokesman. "We expected this, and we expect it again and again."
Raad Kadhemi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, said, "We salute our brothers who abandoned participating in the fight against the Mahdi's Army," as al-Sadr's militia is known.
The failed cease-fire talks, desertions and renewed fighting further undermined Allawi's leadership just as Iraq was poised to take its first step toward free elections by picking a national assembly.
Enraged over the fresh violence in Najaf, a group of delegates threatened to walk out of the national conference in Baghdad unless the government imposed an immediate nationwide cease-fire.
It will be difficult, if not impossible, for Allawi to establish his leadership and prod the country toward democracy without crushing his militant opponents, not only in the Shi'ite south but also in the former strongholds of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein north and west of Baghdad. To do that, Allawi must rely on unpopular U.S. troops amid charges that he's a U.S. puppet.
Najaf's old city was chaotic Sunday, with street fighting between al-Sadr's rebels and U.S. troops that have established a cordon around them. Dozens of explosions from tank shells and mortars as well as constant small-arms fire shook Najaf's vast cemetery, where Mahdi's Army fighters have been battling U.S. troops since the violence broke out Aug. 5.
An explosion damaged the outer wall of the Imam Ali shrine on Sunday afternoon, a spokesman for al-Sadr said. It was unclear whether U.S. weapons were responsible.
Several Iraqi colonels inside the Defense Ministry command center, a heavily guarded palace that serves as headquarters for U.S.-led forces, said they would resign immediately if senior officers ordered them to serve in Najaf.
"I'm ready to fight for my country's independence and for my country's stability," one lieutenant colonel said. "But I won't fight my own people."
At an Iraqi National Guard base near the border of Sadr City, the vast Baghdad slum that is an al-Sadr stronghold, 1st Sgt. Khalid Ali described the death threats he and other Iraqi troops have received from the Mahdi's Army. He drew distinctions between fighting fellow Iraqis and fighting militiamen, whom he holds responsible for the deaths of two of his relatives.
"We do not fight our brothers, we fight against those people who are sabotaging our country. The Mahdi's Army is not Shi'ite, they are saboteurs," Ali said.
As the national conference met in Baghdad in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, three mortar rounds struck a bus station. At least two people were killed and 17 wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier hours before the conference began. At least 931 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since March 2003.