A US soldier from K troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd
Armed Cavalry Regiment walks past a painting
of Imam al Hussein, the grandson of prophet
Mohamed. US-led coalition forces urged
residents to leave Karbala.
(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
Posted on 05/15/2004 7:06:45 PM PDT by ride the whirlwind
KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - US-led coalition forces urged residents to leave this Iraqi holy city after three civilians were killed and seven wounded in fighting between Shiite Muslim militiamen and Iraqi troops.
US warplanes flew low overhead and coalition soldiers drove through town telling people to leave over loudspeakers following clashes between US-trained Iraqi paramilitaries and loyalists of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr.
A patrol of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) came under attack 50 metres (yards) from the mausoleums of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, among Shiite Islam's most revered shrines, said witness Hassan Ghanem.
Ghanem said he saw a fighter from Sadr's Mehdi Army militia beat an ICDC officer. Police and medical sources were unable to confirm the report.
Doctor Ali Ardawi told AFP three dead and seven wounded had been admitted to Karbala's hospital. "All the victims were civilians," he said.
A Qatari cameraman working for the Al-Jazeera Arabic television channel told AFP he was lightly wounded around 6:30 pm (1430 GMT) Saturday after a US tank opened fire near the Imam Hussein shrine.
He was being treated at the hotel where he was staying because it was impossible for ambulances to get near the area.
"I was filming US tanks firing at the Mehdi militia near the holy shrines when a strong explosion suddenly knocked me to the ground," he said.
The Polish-led multinational division based in the region said one coalition soldier was wounded after his patrol came under attack around 10:50 am (0650 GMT) near the Al-Muhayem mosque in Karbala.
A representative of Shiite Islam's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on local people to find a "peaceful solution" to the violence.
"I call on residents to intervene with both parties in the conflict to find a peaceful solution," Sheikh Abdel Mehdi Karabalai told AFP.
A senior official said the US military was urging local leaders to secure a peaceful outcome, but insisted that the militia disband and Sadr face justice for his alleged role in the murder of a rival cleric last year.
"The use of arms may create 10 new problems that we're trying to avoid," the coalition's deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, told a Baghdad news conference.
Karbala was one of the largest towns which Sadr's militia seized early last month in a major insurgency which threatened to spark a wider uprising against coalition forces by Iraq (news - web sites)'s Shiite majority.
Sadr's men have also clashed with coalition troops in Baghdad, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Kufa, Amara and Basra in recent days.
Mehdi Army commander Sheikh Hamza Tai said a police officer taken hostage during an attack here Friday had been released, but warned that any "collaborators" caught in the future would be killed.
"This is the last policeman that we will free. Any new policemen we capture will be executed for collaborating with the occupiers," Tai told reporters.
Sadr's militiamen raided a police station Friday and escaped with a cache of assault rifles, police said earlier.
A US soldier from K troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd
Armed Cavalry Regiment walks past a painting
of Imam al Hussein, the grandson of prophet
Mohamed. US-led coalition forces urged
residents to leave Karbala.
(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
really? I thought it was The Ayatolla of Iraq's Sh*thola!
Unfortunately this is mentioned only once throughout the article.
I hope that "injured" Al-Jazeera cameraman at least got that part on tape. Give residents 24hrs. to vacate then proceed with extreme prejudice.
I hope that's the case, but I doubt it..
I have never seen such a disappointing campaign, in many respects..
Seems we make a lot of bold statements, then wimp out before completing the missions..
This must be very stressful for the troops, seeing their commanders hobbled like this, unable to do what must be done.
The hand writing has been on the wall - they have to have known something was heading their way.
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