US troops storm Shia stronghold

[Aidoneus]

US troops storm Shia stronghold
Thursday 16 October 2003

US occupation soldiers backed by tanks have moved into a stronghold of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as violence continued to grip war-shattered Iraq.

Iraqi police on Thursday also arrested at least 12 of the anti- occupation cleric’s followers after evicting them from a municipal building in Baghdad’s densely packed al-Sadr city suburb.

The cleric’s followers had seized the building last week. At least six US tanks blocked access to the building that was surrounded by armoured military vehicles.

Occupation forces are scrutinising al-Sadr’s activities but officials did not elaborate what the actions were.

Al-Sadr heads a thousands-strong armed militia called the al-Mahdi army. His groups had been using the municipal building to run its own social services.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E99983FE-310E-4CCD-A474-C01BE1F89CFD.htm

[htuttle]

1. Gotta match?

:nuke:

[Vikingking66]

2. the excrement has hit the rotating falanges

This can't possibly end well.

[Code_Name_D]

3. More like plumbing the suwer into the turbo-boster.

[Gin]

4. How dare those Iraqis running their own programs...in their own

buildings....the nerve.

[Saudade]

5. Shi'ites

I think that the Shi'ite majority in Iraq have been sort of laying low, watching how things go (many of them may still be worried about the Ba'ath Party). At some point, they will organize and resist. Maybe we're reaching that point.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. A secular strongman must look good right now

to the White House braintrust. Someone like - oh, I don't know...Saddam Hussein?

Quite the can of worms they've opened. Didn't anybody bother to read the contents?

On Sunday, al-Sadr announced the formation of a parallel government in Najaf, where five million believers are expected to converge soon in pilgrimage.

"We are ready to sacrifice our souls for you, Sadr," chanted the demonstrators as they roamed the streets of the city.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/62D93B71-232E-414F-B111-D8BF9511A34E.htm

[mmm]

8. A parallel government

with the endorsement of five million citizens. That sounds downright legitimate!
Hope they stashed plenty of weapons, they'll be needing them.

[Emillereid]

7. How do you spell idiots --

Take your pick: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perl