US told to avoid main Shia area in Baghdad

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480507818

A powerful Shia Muslim movement warned US troops on Friday not to enter Baghdad's largest Shia neighbourhood after a gun battle there on Thursday night killed two US soldiers and two Iraqis.

It was the worst clash yet between Iraqi Shia militiamen and US troops. Shia leaders on Friday were calling for restraint from their followers even as they branded America a "servant of Israel". US forces are keen to avoid alienating Iraq's Shia population, who until now have not joined in attacks against US forces seen mainly in Sunni areas.

Dozens of armed Shia militiamen stood guard at the site of the battle on Friday, outside the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a popular Shia preacher (pictured). His followers insist the building was the target of a US raid on Thursday night, although US officials deny this.

US and Iraqi versions of the battle - if it was the same battle, and both sides insist there was only one - are contradictory. Both sides agree it happened near Mr al-Sadr's headquarters in Sadr City. Residents of the neighbourhood claim that seven US tanks surrounded the headquarters at 9:30pm and fired into the compound, killing two people inside.

more

[Oilwellian]

1. What?

Can't Bush's man Chalabi keep these Shia in check? :eyes:

[Nottingham]

2. Oh We have control!! NOT!

:bounce:

[Spazito]

3. Weren't the Shias supposed to be the US friendly ones?

Gosh, no flowers from the Shias, the Sunnis and the Kurds! Hmmmm, how does one say "FUBAR"?

[jab105]

4. Seriously bad...when the SHiites start rebeling...

This is what was "predicted" and it was a good thing that didnt happen...if its happening, we are in serious trouble...at least in our efforts to win hearts and minds.....

[ReadTomPaine]

5. Yes they told the Army there was something about stepping on necks...

...that irked the locals.

[Aidoneus]

6. 'A Shi'ite warning to America'

two particularly interesting segments in this, if a bit off the main point of how the piece starts:--

THE ROVING EYE - EXCLUSIVE
A Shi'ite warning to America
By Pepe Escobar

--snip--

At least for the moment, the chief US administrator in Iraq, L Paul Bremer, the Iraqi Governing Council and the marjaaiyya in Najaf are all adopting a "wait and see" attitude toward Muqtada. They know they cannot neutralize him at the moment because he is capable of putting a million very angry people on to the streets of Baghdad: nobody else can. The Shi'ite middle class also knows very well that although Muqtada is intolerable, he cannot be easily dismissed. It's even possible that the controversial Turkish decision to send troops to Iraq - as the Americans badly wanted - might be the opening Muqtada and his backers in Iran were waiting for. Sunni Sheikh Abdel Sattar Jabar, a member of the Governing Council, went straight to the point: "Turkey, a Sunni country, is called for a military intervention in a Sunni area. So the Shi'ites also may have the right to demand Shi'ite troops deployed in their area." Which means troops from Shi'ite Iran.

All Iraqis know that if Turkey sends troops to Iraq, this will mean the dreaded opening of a Pandora's box. Shi'ites may have been very patient so far, but not a single one of them has forgotten that the Turks are descendants of the hated Ottoman colonial power.

--snip--

Sheikh Saleh stresses that the occupation is fought "by our brains and by our religion ... There is no difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites. What the media say is not real. We do have many objections regarding this Governing Council, established under ethnic lines. Most Iraqis suffered from the previous regime; now there's a relaxed period, as if they were released from hospital after surgery. But we are daily watching events, and it's getting worse. Prices have doubled. The occupation is printing a new kind of money, selling industries and commercial establishments. Iraq is a very rich country, but the population is one of the poorest anywhere. The previous regime lost a lot of money. It's not wise to get Iraq straight back into the world system."

Bremer, in line with Pentagon thought, has repeatedly said that Iraqis are disqualified from managing themselves. Sheikh Saleh says, "Iraqis have been qualified to do it since the first month of the occupation, has brought all sorts of problems to the Iraqis and also to the Americans." The sheikh insists that "we still don't know the political and economic reasons for the occupation. They have used us as a training field, in the beginning of a big strategy."

But will Shi'ite patience run out? The sheikh answers with a beatific smile, "The English left Iraq after the revolution in the 1920s. It started with only five words, here in Najaf."

--snip--

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EJ11Ak01.html

[smallprint]

10. "They have used us as a training field"

in the beginning of a big strategy."

Yes, the beginning of the PNAC strategy to conquer the Middle East and every other country around the world that has any petroleum left underground.

Yes, it is a training field-- training for the GIs before they hit the big fight-- Iran.

[Plaid Adder]

7. Well, we were wondering why there was no 'battle of Baghdad.'

Here it is, folks! All that street-to-street urban combat we thought we had somehow magically avoided. Whee.

This just sucks. I mean that hole is just going to get deeper and deeper and nobody in this administration has any clue about how to get the poor bastards they sent over there out of it.

:argh:

The Plaid Adder

[0007]

8. Folks, don't get too concerned - Please

Condoleezza Rice is scurrying to take care of the misinformed Shia population. 'Tis just a matter of a few meetings to have them eating out of our hand.

Condi knows what junior wants and goddamn it, she'll make sure junior isn't agitated again as he was with that nasty Rumsfield & that Powell guy. In fact condi thinks it was 'them suckers that leaked the CIA information, she just can't prove it!

[neverforget]

9. How to make enemies and influence no one: the Bush mantra.

Our so-called "allies" now hate us. It took only 6 months. The Sunnis already hate us, now add the Shiites. When will the Kurds hate us? Probably by the end of the year or whenever the Turks come into Iraq for "peacekeeping". George "Clusterfuck" Bush