Senior Sadr lieutenant arrested with loot from Najaf shrine

[He219]

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040825/capt.sge.drf67.250804152322.photo00.default-259x350.jpg
Sheikh Ali Smeisim (pictured) -- the most influential aide of Shiite Muslim militia leader Moqtada Sadr was arrested in the besieged holy city of Najaf

Senior Sadr lieutenant arrested in Najaf: police (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraq_unrest_shiites)

2 minutes ago

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - The most influential aide to Shiite Muslim militia leader Moqtada Sadr, Sheikh Ali Smeisim, was arrested in the besieged holy city of Najaf, police said.

Smeisim was detained along with four other lieutenants of the radical cleric in the Al-Saad district near the 1920 Revolution Square, a senior police officer said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Deputy Najaf police chief, General Amer al-Daami, told reporters that four Sadr supporters were arrested with a tablet engraved with verses of the Koran, dating back centuries and a stash of dollars.

The booty was shown to reporters, but Daami refused to divulge the names of those arrested.

Inside the Imam Ali mausoleum, where hundreds of Sadr's supporters were Wednesday trapped by US forces, only a relatively small number of people were aware of Smeisim's arrest.

"It's hard to believe. This government is just like the (former) Saddam (Hussein) regime. They operate just like the Baathists," said a militiamen who gave his name only as Mohammed.

"They arrested Smeisim even though he had the green light to go and carry out negotiations," he added.

The lieutenant was picked up by police outside Najaf's historic Old City, which has been dogged by heavy fighting between US-led Iraqi government troops and Sadr's Mehdi Army for three weeks.

On Tuesday, Smeisim told reporters the Mehdi Army was ready to re-negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict, faced with what looked like an imminent US-led assault.

Also responsible for overseeing the mausoleum and its priceless treasures, Smeisim holds one of just two sets of keys to the complex

[Uncle Sam]

Senior Sadr lieutenant arrested in Najaf: police (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraq_unrest_shiites)

2 minutes ago

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - The most influential aide to Shiite Muslim militia leader Moqtada Sadr, Sheikh Ali Smeisim, was arrested in the besieged holy city of Najaf, police said.

Smeisim was detained along with four other lieutenants of the radical cleric in the Al-Saad district near the 1920 Revolution Square, a senior police officer said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Deputy Najaf police chief, General Amer al-Daami, told reporters that four Sadr supporters were arrested with a tablet engraved with verses of the Koran, dating back centuries and a stash of dollars.

The booty was shown to reporters, but Daami refused to divulge the names of those arrested.

Inside the Imam Ali mausoleum, where hundreds of Sadr's supporters were Wednesday trapped by US forces, only a relatively small number of people were aware of Smeisim's arrest.

"It's hard to believe. This government is just like the (former) Saddam (Hussein) regime. They operate just like the Baathists," said a militiamen who gave his name only as Mohammed.

"They arrested Smeisim even though he had the green light to go and carry out negotiations," he added.

The lieutenant was picked up by police outside Najaf's historic Old City, which has been dogged by heavy fighting between US-led Iraqi government troops and Sadr's Mehdi Army for three weeks.

On Tuesday, Smeisim told reporters the Mehdi Army was ready to re-negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict, faced with what looked like an imminent US-led assault.

Also responsible for overseeing the mausoleum and its priceless treasures, Smeisim holds one of just two sets of keys to the complex


They showed his booty?? Gross...

Seriously though, glad they got that bastard! He knew the time was ending quickly for him. He probably did it on purpose.

[He219]

Here's the BOTTY! (http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51216477.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=771BD3E8B814D5CD928D5CD084D23D0CA9C30E9B9B114CE8)

NAJAF, IRAQ: Police display what they described as a relic from the shrine of Imam Ali during a press conference by Najaf deputy police chief Amr Hamza al-Daami in Najaf 25 August 2004 to announce the arrest of four unidentified aides of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr who were found in possession of several thousand US dollars in cash and the stone engraved with verses from the Koran. Another police source, who spoke on condition of anonimity, declared that top Sadr aide Sheikh Ali Smeisim was arrested with four other lieutenants of the fiery cleric.



NAJAF, IRAQ: Najaf police chief Ghaled al-Jazaeri (http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51216401.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=771BD3E8B814D5CD50173713805FB0DEA9C30E9B9B114CE8) (R) and Sheikh Mohammed Reza Diksin of the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest Shiite Muslim authority, give a press conference in Najaf 25 August 2004. Sistani, returned home from London and has called on Iraqis to be ready to march on Najaf to save the city, aide Hamad al-Khaffaf told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite TV channel.

US armored vehicles trapped the shrine in a pincer grip, smashing through Shiite militiamen defenses as snipers fired on all those coming or going from the mausoleum. A US plane fired a missile just metres (yards (http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51217110.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=E2399169AC85D6DE9A21091711E5AD1E0B901729243B07887757C85AE85A779B)) to the west of the mausoleum, making the building tremble and filling it with dust, said an AFP correspondent inside with up to 600 other people. The closest US vehicle was 20 metres (yards) from the western gate of the complex, for four months the military headquarters of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, after troops closed in from the Najaf sea, a desert surrounding the city

Aghrrr!
p-)

[Fee Fi Fo Fum]

Very good news! now that this Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is in town
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22846

do you think it will be the end of the assualt?

[One?]

Very good news! now that this Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is in town
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22846

do you think it will be the end of the assualt?

he could of simply said "stop the attack" from his bed in london, but he didnt. Also the other 3 ayatollah's are missing...None of the clerics said anything so far, although they know this can stop with 1 fatwa.

[vampireuk]

Looks like it's not holy enough to stop them stealing things from it :roll:

[He219]

he could of simply said "stop the attack" from his bed in london, but he didnt. Also the other 3 ayatollah's are missing...None of the clerics said anything so far, although they know this can stop with 1 fatwa.
Some of my friends and I have speculated all along that Sistani tacitly allowed Iraqi coalition forces to weaken Moqtada Sadr as a calculated decision to keep the private Mehdi militia 'in check' while maintaining plausible deniability and not starting religious infighting.

Sistani now enters An Najaf as a 'savior' and the true protector of the Imam Ali Shrine while making amends to the Mehdi (at the brink of their annhialation in Najaf) in absolving Moqtada's private fighters by allowing them to escape within the crowds as Sistani enters the Shrine, thereby strenghtening his personal standing within the Sia world ..

[aartamen]

Sistani does not want to appear pro-American if he can help it.

[GrantT]

do you think it will be the end of the assualt?

It would be pretty foolish of Al-Sadr not to hand over the Mosque to Ali Al Sistani, if he didn't Sadr's support would take a serious nose dive (not as though it hasn't already). There is also the problem of the Mehdi militia that surrounds the mosque, there are people who believe that Sadr has no control over their actions so even if Sadr wants them out of the Shrine area they may not leave.

[One?]

do you think it will be the end of the assualt?

It would be pretty foolish of Al-Sadr not to hand over the Mosque to Ali Al Sistani, if he didn't Sadr's support would take a serious nose dive (not as though it hasn't already). There is also the problem of the Mehdi militia that surrounds the mosque, there are people who believe that Sadr has no control over their actions so even if Sadr wants them out of the Shrine area they may not leave.


Sadr has been urging sistani to take the keys but no one accepted them. He said that they need a "comittee". But accepting the keys means accepting the responsibility that if anything happens to the shrine it would be sistani's fault.

Sistani called on all iraqis to head over to Najaf. This came after sadr supporters were all over the the arab TV stations talking about how sistani didn't take a decision, and how he let the shia's in iraq down.


During the march to najaf 2 unarmed iraqis have been shot (check your local tv station), and 4 others wounded. Currently about 10,000 protestors (unarmed woman, chidlren, men) are surrounded. The Iraqi government does not want anyone to enter najaf.

Everyone is saying they are using saddam techniques, although a war was waged to stop these acts. Instead of looking for terrorist like zarqawi they are going after those who once fought saddam....


As for the cleric that was caught he was asked to meet a delegation to solve the najaf siege. It was only an attempt to get him out of the shrine so they can arrest him. The artifact is now being said that its a fake of an artifact found in another mosque in basra.


Why is the iraqi government trying to prove?

[GrantT]

Sadr has been urging sistani to take the keys but no one accepted them.

One of Sistani's aides has already said that the reason they have not agreed to take control of the Shrine is because Sadr's militia are still crawling all over the area, it is simply not safe.

[Khabbi]

The US should just take Al-Sadr out and blame Mossad rofl

[He219]

The way I read your text, One; you support Moqtada Sadr, are negative toward Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and are against the interm Iraqi government along with the establishment of a democratic system in Iraq.

you missed one thing, interestingly enough:
http://photo.worldnews.com/PhotoArchive//2004/08/25/8eb747df4d402f8fce7c1a849ecd7dcc-large.jpg

Iraq's Sadr calls for march on Najaf (http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5169268)

BAGHDAD (*******) - Anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to march on the
Iraqi holy city of Najaf to break a U.S. siege of Shi'ite militants holed up in a shrine, an aide says.

Mahmoud al-Soundani said the march had been planned before Sadr's political rival, Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani, issued a call earlier on Wednesday for all Iraqis to go to Najaf to save the "burning city".

"The office of the Martyr Sadr calls on all of Sayyed Moqtada's supporters to march on Najaf. This is a
separate call from the one by Ayatollah Sistani," he said.

Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite Muslim cleric and seen by many as a voice of moderation, is
returning to the country after heart surgery in London.

:lol: trying to deflate Sistani's momentum ..





During the march to najaf 2 unarmed iraqis have been shot (check your local tv station), and 4 others wounded. Currently about 10,000 protestors (unarmed woman, chidlren, men) are surrounded. The Iraqi government does not want anyone to enter najaf.

No kidding. They're supposed to keep the mob out (individuals in the mob were also bearing weapons) - there's a military operation going on against those using the Imam Ali shrine for their personal abitions and firing weapons and mortars throughout An Najaf and from behind the walls of the Shirne itself against Iraqi citizens, police, soldiers and coalition forces!

Three mortar rounds, apparently targeting a police checkpoint, hit a civilian area in Kufa, killing two civilians, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounding four others while another group of terrorists kidnapped the brother-in-law of Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan and demanded an end to all military operations. How's that for your peaceful demonstrators ..

As for unarmed women (http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51216249.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=E2399169AC85D6DE9A21091711E5AD1EC1EDF6B62858CC2F7757C85AE85A779B) and children (http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51216230.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=E2399169AC85D6DE9A21091711E5AD1E1923D06CC635ABB27757C85AE85A779B) ...
:roll:


Mahdi army flees shrine as US steps up offensive (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1290056,00.html)

Mahdi army fighters loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had largely abandoned Najaf's Imam Ali shrine yesterday before American forces launched a massive offensive, which was under way last night.
Sources inside the resistance movement said the majority of the militiamen slipped out of the complex after a secret order by Mr Sadr five days ago.

The cleric was no longer in the area immediately around the shrine, which was encircled by American tanks, they said.

"He is 100% not there," one source said. "We are cleverer than the Americans think. Anybody who stays behind is likely to be killed." He added: "We need these people."

Mr Sadr's aides insisted the cleric was still in Najaf, but many of his fighters appeared to be regrouping in the neighbouring town of Kufa, having been told that the battle for the shrine has effectively been lost.

Their withdrawal preceded a ferocious bombardment by US forces of both Najaf and Kufa last night - and the largely symbolic arrival of a handful of Iraqi government troops near, but not in, the battle zone for the first time.

American tanks were only a few hundred metres from the shrine, and had blocked off a strategic boulevard immediately to the south.

A major American military operation appeared to be underway last night after a day of intense fighting.

The streets of Najaf's old city echoed to the "pop pop" of machine gunfire. Overhead US warplanes circled continuously. Two Apache helicopter gunships flew over the vast cemetery.

They also attacked targets in Kufa, where the crump of tank shells could be heard. Seconds later thick black smoke billowed above the old city.

Yesterday Iraq's defence minister, Hazim al-Shalan, predicted that the battle in Najaf, which has severely dented the authority of the US-backed interim government, was entering its final, and possibly most bloody, stage.

"We are in the last hours," he told a news conference at a US base outside the city. "This evening Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it, and appeal to the Mahdi army to throw down their weapons. If they do not, we will wipe them out."

But Mr Shalan has made the same claim before, and last week Iraq's interior ministry announced prematurely that police were already inside the shrine.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad yesterday insurgents tried to assassinate Iraq's environment and education ministers in separate bombings that killed five of their bodyguards and wounded more than a dozen people, officials said.

The environment minister, Mishkat Moumin, said she had survived a suicide car bomb attack on her convoy. "I have been working on sending aid to Najaf and before that distributing water in Sadr City. Serving the Iraqi people is not a crime that deserves this," Ms Moumin told *******.

The education minister, Sami al-Mudhaffar, was unhurt after a roadside bomb hit his convoy.

The attacks were the latest attempts to kill government officials, seen as traitors by Iraq's resistance. The uprising in Najaf has plunged the prime minister, Ayad Allawi, into his gravest crisis so far.

Yesterday a spokesman for Mr Sadr, Ali Semesin, told journalists the cleric still wanted a peaceful solution. "We are still ready to negotiate to end this suffering," he said.

Another of Mr Sadr's aides said shrapnel from an American attack on Monday night had hit the shrine's golden dome, one of its minarets and the compound's outer wall. The US said the Mahdi army caused the damage after firing a rocket that clipped one of the shrine's walls and exploded.

Yesterday an official at Najaf's al-Hakim Hospital said at least two fighters had been killed and four wounded. Two civilians also died and two others were injured. More casualties were reported in the old city, where emergency workers could not reach.

Mr Sadr has not been seen in public for many days, and police drove around Najaf with loudspeakers yesterday declaring that he had fled towards Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. His aides denied that.

"Moqtada al-Sadr is still in Najaf and is still supervising the operations," Aws al-Khafaji, the head of Mr Sadr's office in the southern city of Nassiriya, told al-Jazeera television.

US warplanes reportedly also struck the volatile city of Falluja early yesterday. Witnesses said it was unclear what the target was, but they reported flames and smoke in southern parts of the town.

[One?]

He219 I do oppose the interm government because they are killing their own people instead of fighting people like zarqawi. They came from europe and the US to take government positions, while the ones that stayed in iraq and fought are left out. People like chalabi who are wanted for fraud in Jordan, and Allawi who was a CIA agent. Where was allawi, and the current minister of defence when saddam killed 300,000 in the uprising? You have to respect the people who fought saddam, not kill them. First they say that they banned executions, and later on the reinstate it. What will happen next? State of emergency? and after that.....we know what goes on.

I wouldn't mind it if Allawi was elected, then I would shut my mouth.

I dont oppose Ayatollah Sistani, although like other muslims out there I didn't like the idea that he waited till hundreds have died before taking a decision. In 1 word he could of told sadr to STOP the fighting, just like he did the last time. Alot of innocent people are caught in the middle.

[He219]

Als, a a well formulated rebuttal, One!
:D

You have to give a fledgeling democracy a chance before insinuating that martial law and US dictatorship will follow.

And how is the interm government 'killing their own people instead of fighting people like zarqawi'?

Sadr tells his followers to take up arms agains the government and Iraqi coalition forces and use terrorist tactics to bomb, kidnap and kill. You want to believe it's Alawi's government againt Iraq and support those that want to prevent democratic rule from taking root, ie. Shia radicalism.


http://accuweather.ap.org/apdbs/Intl_Photos/views/mini/7413/7413048.jpg

A member of the conference speaks to the Chief of the National Conference Fuad Masoun about the unrest in Najaf at the opening of the three-day national conference intended to bring a taste of democratic debate to a country suffering from violence, chaos and the legacy of a brutal dictatorship at the Baghdad convention center in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday Aug. 15, 2004 Delegates had high expectations for this unprecedented gathering of religious, political and civic leaders, which will help elect a 100-member national council to act as a watchdog over the interim government ahead of elections scheduled for January.

Sistani certainly doesn't want to concede to democratic rule either. So which is the lesser of two evils, the one that provokes militant confrontation and risks the lives of countless Iraqis in an armed insurgency while using the sacred shrine as cover, or the one who does not take up arms?

[One?]

Sadr did not kidnap or kill any civilians. He fought the coalition, becuase he was provoked, not by the US but by the Iraqi government. Allawi and his "crew" don't want people like Sadr in power, because they will take the show away from him. And since he knows Sadr is against the US he wanted to disarm him. From there all hell broke lose.

If you watch the arabic stations (now) aids to Al-Sadr are still calling for a peaceful solution and they are not fighting. On the other hand the ICDC has killed 16 protestors, and injured over 100. Those were following sistani's call to go to najaf, and thousands are still gathering to make their way into najaf. There are thousands sarrounded in Kufa and other areas. So peaceful protests are not allowed now?

Why doesn't the ICDC go full force to find zarqawi? The person who is kidnaping, assasinating, and killing civilians?

He219: How could you impose democracy if the people currently in power were not chosen by the people? Set an example for people to follow.


Sistani certainly doesn't want to concede to democratic rule either

Since saddam was removed sistani has been calling for elections. And if he is not the type of person who wants to be in power. And thats why sistani and sadr don't get well together. One believes that the religious clerics should take part in politics and the other doesnt.

[GrantT]

Sadr did not kidnap or kill any civilians.

Sadr's followers fire indiscriminately on streets, they fire mortars without any regard for civilians and they fire RPG's without even considering the results.

http://cache.*****images.com/comp/51149598.jpg?x=x&dasite=MS_GINS&ef=2&ev=1&dareq=CACF07A1008DBC17CA4E0EDCD2FB28DFA9C30E9B9B114CE8

If a US Marine saw those two guys all he is going to see is the RPG and open fire. There are similar pictures with a man firing an RPG while civilian cars pass him, do you think he cares about the people inside them?


On the other hand the ICDC has killed 16 protestors, and injured over 100.

Has it actually been proven it was Iraqi Forces who fired on the crowd or is that speculation? As far as I can see it is just speculation and needs to be treated as such. Oh and the ICDC doesn't exist anymore it is now the Iraqi National Guard.


So peaceful protests are not allowed now?

Is it Iraq's policy to quell protests by shooting randomly into them? No of course not, thousands of Iraqi's have protested peacefully under the new government without being harmed.


If you watch the arabic stations (now) aids to Al-Sadr are still calling for a peaceful solution and they are not fighting.

The militia is still fighting the US and still occupying the shrine and the surrounding area. Next you're going to tell us that Al-Sadr is actually a pretty decent guy. :roll:

[One?]

So you're telling me firing an RPG from the street is the same as kidnapping a truck driver and beheading him?

As for Sadr not fighting, yes they are still in and around the shrine, but they halted all fighting until sistani arrives in the city. According to sistani he has a new ultimatum.

[GrantT]

So you're telling me firing an RPG from the street is the same as kidnapping a truck driver and beheading him?

Well I didn't compare a beheading to firing an RPG. The multi-national forces in Iraq have two problems to deal with; the Al-Sadr/Shia insurgency as well as the Al Qaeda/Sunni insurgency. Do you think the US should concentrate solely on the Al Qaeda/Sunni insurgency while ignoring the Al-Sadr threat? He is after all an influential cleric in some quarters of Iraqi life and preaches violence towards the multi-national forces and the Iraq Government, do you think that's acceptable?

And it's not as though the US is not trying to tackle the Al Qaeda/Sunni insurgency, Fallujah is strategically bombed regularly and Special Forces also operate in the city. It's pretty naive to think that the US is putting all its manpower into one city to get rid one hothead cleric, there not.