Posted on 06/04/2008 3:38:31 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Iraqi police announced the arrest of five senior leaders of the Mahdi Army in the city of Karbala as assassination attempts were made on three police commanders in Baghdad and southern Iraq. The largest attack occurred in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad, and resulted in more than 13 killed and 50 wounded.
The Karbala police announced the captureof Mahdi Army commanders Ali Abd Taan, Sayyid Munadil, Muhsin Sharea, Haidar Jouri, and Razzaq al Samma. The five men lead a Mahdi Army unit in Karbala that was behind attacks on Iraqi police forces during a religious festival in August 2007. The attacks led to the closing down of the festival and a declaration of a unilateral cease-fire by Mahdi Army and Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al Sadr.
"The group committed 721 murders in Karbala alone and killed dozens of Sunni Muslims in a number of Iraqi cities as part of their acts of ethnic and sectarian cleansing," said Major General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the chief of police in Karbala. The Mahdi Army leaders tortured some of their captives inside mosques. The captured leaders claimed they were targeting Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein. "When we searched the background (of the victims), we found that only 11 of the 721 were in fact Baathists," Jawdat said.
Ali Abd Taan, who is also known as Ali Sharea, is the senior most leader of a company of 150 fighters, Jawdat said. He "led 150 gunmen who carried out arson and sabotage of many facilities, killed policemen and attacked the shrine of Imam al Hussein" in Karbala. Taan "is also a prominent leader in Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army," Voices of Iraq reported. He has eluded attempts to capture him in the past.
Munadil was described as "the mastermind and most bloodthirsty in the group." Sammak was the commander of the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Jihadi Brigades, a radical Shia militia.
The Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Jihadi Brigades is a Shia terror group that became active in October 2003. The group is active in Karbala and Najaf, according to The Global Policy Forum, and has committed to targeting foreign forces and Iraqi cooperating with them. "It vowed to kill the soldiers of any country sending its troops to support the coalition forces, and threatened to transfer the battleground to the territories of such countries if they were to send troops."
Iraqi police chiefs targeted
As the Iraqi police announced the capture of senior Mahdi Army leaders, police leaders were targeted in Baghdad and Nasiriyah. These attacks appear to have been carried out by the Mahdi Army.
The largest attack occurred in the Sha'ab neighborhood in Baghdad, a Mahdi Army stronghold. Iraqi police reported a suicide bomber rammed into the home of Nadhim Taye, an Iraqi police chief in Baghdad. Eleven Iraqis were killed and 64 were wounded, making it the largest attack in Baghdad since mid-April. Taye survived the attack, but several members of his family were reported to have been killed.
The US military said the Shaab explosion wasn't a suicide attack, but an accidental detonation of a truck used to launch "improvised rocket-assisted mortars" at a US base in the region. Mahdi Army fighters rig mortars in the fashion to extend the range of the weapons. The US military said 18 Iraqis were killed and 29 were wounded in the explosion.
Another attack was successful in killing a police commander in eastern Baghdad. Colonel Thafer Ghanem was killed in a shooting in the Zayonna neighborhood in the New Baghdad district, a Mahdi Army stronghold. Activity in New Baghdad has increased since the Sadr City cease-fire between the Sadrist movement and the Iraqi government.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, a car bomb was detonated next to a police building. Four Iraqis were wounded in an attack outside of the building housing the emergency police unit in Nasiriyah.
LWJ ping...
I don’t get it??? are not these brave leaders suppose to do a suicide rush at our machine guns to set an example to their troops of how to die for Allah?
Need 5 ropes and 360 virgins
For 721 murders, each should receive a prize of a new hemp necktie. Will Maliki have the nerve to carry through with it?
5 ropes soaked in pig drippings!
Caution, you're on the verge of saying a racist word. <>
“Taye survived the attack, but several members of his family were reported to have been killed.”
This guy is gonna be extremely pissed! I’ll bet he doesn’t take a lot of prisoners in the future!
Thanks T4B.
Iraqi police announced the arrest of five senior leaders of the Mahdi Army in the city of Karbala as assassination attempts were made on three police commanders in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
Water Board them all.....then hang them.
Captured?
Whose idea was it to take prisoners?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.