Posted on 07/11/2003 12:17:15 PM PDT by Brian S
By Daniel Trotta NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Religious leaders of both Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims said on Friday Iraqis were becoming increasingly angry at the presence of U.S.-led troops in their country and one warned holy war could be declared in six months. U.S. forces in Iraq are already facing between 10 and 25 attacks a day, according to the general who led the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.
U.S. General Tommy Franks told U.S. lawmakers on Friday American soldiers had noticed assailants were now using weapons such as mortars rather than just small arms and grenades. In the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, a religious leader of Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims, said Shi'ites could turn against U.S.-led forces if they were not given political compensation after decades of persecution under Saddam.
"In Iraq, there is a Shi'ite majority but the previous regime treated it as a minority...They must be compensated for this persecution," Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Hakim told Reuters in an interview.
The black-turbaned ayatollah, sitting on cushions on the floor of his Najaf residence, said more and more Iraqis were angry over the foreign presence in Iraq.
Shi'ite Muslims, who account for 65 percent of Iraq's 26 million population, largely welcomed the U.S. invasion after years of persecution under Saddam. But Hakim said they may lose their patience if Iraqis are not allowed to take over running the country very soon.
"They gave the justification that they came in the name of liberation but now they are an occupying force. That is what is making people angry," he said. "If the people lose their patience, there will be a social uproar."
SIX MONTHS
A more hardline message came from a leader of minority Sunni Muslims in the flashpoint town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, where some analysts say anti-U.S. attacks began as revenge for the killings of 15 youthful demonstrators in late April.
Sheikh Abdullah Janabi, a leader of one of Falluja's 46 mosques, urged people there to give U.S. forces six months to finish their mission in the town.
"When this period is finished, the patience of Muslims will run out and jihad (holy struggle) will be declared," he told worshippers at Friday prayers.
Washington hopes the violence will decline if Iraqis feel the occupying powers are transferring authority to local leaders. One key step will be the establishment of a national governing council, expected within days.
U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has said patience is needed to rebuild the shattered country.
U.S. officers denied Arabic media reports that American soldiers had pulled out of Falluja.
Troops in Falluja pulled out of a police station and the mayor's office but remained in the town, officers and witnesses said. U.S. soldiers in armored vehicles patrolled the town center on Friday morning.
Thirty-one U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1. U.S. officials blame Saddam loyalists on recent attacks but many Iraqis say the attacks reflect growing discontent with the occupation.
MORTAR, GRENADE ATTACKS
Attackers fired four mortar rounds overnight at a U.S. base in Samarra, around 60 miles north of Baghdad, wounding three soldiers and an Iraqi, the military said.
On Thursday evening, a U.S. patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade attack northeast of Baghdad airport and the troops returned fire, a military spokesman said. Two Iraqi civilians were wounded in the crossfire, he added.
U.S. forces have frequently come under fire on the highway leading to the airport.
In Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, attackers fired three mortar rounds at a U.S. military base at around 4:30 a.m. local time, a spokesman said. No one was injured. Witnesses said mortar rounds struck the base again on Friday night. There were no reports of casualties.
Bush and his close ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, are facing mounting accusations that they exaggerated the threat of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify invading Iraq. No chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have so far been found.
Bush and Blair will meet in Washington on July 17, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Well then, Mr. Mullah, get your butt in gear and get your people to knock off the silly stuff and help put their own country together!
I like that. That should get used more often- "The American Street".
and if those Americans are still being ambushed and assassinated in 6 months, then we will have to declared jeh . . . whatever and find our Damascus scimitars wherever they went to, and get some of those speedy little Arabian horses, and . . . uh . . . destroy the infidel assass . . . Americans. We know Alleh wants us to do this, because Alle never does anything himself, we have to do everything, which BTW is why this country is in such bad shape..
Oh, Heavens to Betsy, we wouldn't want that!
I'm so absolutetly, totally, completely, sick to death of these sand maggots and their incessant b!tch!ng and moaning that I can't stand it any more.
When aren't these medieval barbarians "angry" about something? When aren't they killing innocent men women and children? When aren't they commiting acts of mass murder? When aren't they using violence to get their way?
Islam is a plague on the human race. It's worse than any disease. Their society, and their actions, and their incessant anger is merely a reflection of the world their twisted, evil religion has created.
Not if you aren't a Muslim.
We ought to just pull out, and let them at each other.
Just tell them, "you set up another despot and get in our face, and we're coming back to b!tch slap you back down, again".
We should have just gone in, kicked their a@@es, left the country a parking lot, and pulled out.
They created the mess, let them clean it up.
Put another Islamofascist despot in place, we'll come back and kick your a@@ again...that should have been our message to them.
Instead we're over there playing silly-a@@ patty-cakes, PC games and our soldier's are dying for it.
We just don't have the guts to do what is required to subjegate a country filled with people of their mentality. We're not capable of doing what's necessary in our own self-defense.
Meanwhile our guys will continue to come home in body bags because our politicians are spineless and our country is gutless.
This article is about the 2004 elections. (Paint the worst possible picture)
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