America Attacks Najaf

BAGHDAD, IRAQ-- U.S. troops backed by helicopter gunships have entered the holy Shiite city of Najaf, clashing with the Mehdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The US military says 64 Iraqi fighters were killed, though hospital officials in Najaf told the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera most of the 28 injured received from the clashes appear to be civilians.

"We're going to drive this guy Sadr into the dirt," Brigadier General Mark Herling told reporters. "Either he tells his militia to put down their arms, form a political party and fight with ideas not guns, or he's going to find a lot of them killed."

The fighting Monday night marks the first time U.S. troops tried to enter Najaf -- moving into Spanish military base on the edge of the city as 1,400 soldiers from Spain, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic pull out of Iraq. It's also the same spot where gun-battles first erupted at the start of this month after US forces closed Sadr's newspaper, al-Hawza, and arrested one of his top lieutenants. After that, occupation authorities produced an arrest warrant for al-Sadr announcing they wouldn't rest until he was captured or killed.

"What we are concerned about mainly is the safety of the people and the religious shrines in Najaf and Karbala," says Dr. Sa'ad Jawad Kindil of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which the Bush Administration gave a seat on the Iraqi Governing Council. His organization is trying to mediate between Muqtada al-Sadr and the US military. "The religious magi, Grand Ayatolla Ali Sistani and others have called on all parties with guns to get out of the towns and that includes the American Army."

He says an American withdrawal from Najaf until the after the planned restoration of Iraqi sovereignty June 30th represents the best hope for protecting the people and protect the sacred shrine of Imam Ali.

"Any outlaw memorandum against al-Sadr must be taken through Iraqi channels and must be dealt with through Iraqi channels and with Iraqi authority," Dr. Sa'ad Jawad Kindil told Pacifica. "If we have a memorandum against al-Sadr that does not justify any American military action in the area."

Also key to defusing the dispute, according to SCIRI's Dr. Kindil is allowing Iraqi's to take a greater role in keeping security in Iraq. "From the very beginning it was clear American forces would not be able to maintain security," he says. "They don't know the people, the people don't know them and they don't know the people and they don't know the country. There is no trust between those two sides as between the Iraqi forces and the people."

But SCIRI's plan has gotten a cool response from the US government, which plans to continue to command not only its own force of 135,000 after the political hand-over but also control over the new Iraqi Army its trained after the over-throw of Saddam Hussein. Speaking Friday on the American network Fox News, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S. control of Iraqi forces is necessary "because you have to have unity of command. You can't have two military forces operating independently of one another. So to some extent, they would yield some of their sovereignty to our military commanders."

But that kind of talk seems destined to result in more fighting and death in Iraq. In his sermon at Friday prayers in Najaf, Muqtada al-Sadr demanded an election before giving up the arms of his Mehdi Army. "If I agree with the law of the Americans and their followers it will be as if I approve of them and a man like me will never approve."

In his sermon, al-Sadr quoted one of Shia Islam's most important martyrs, Imam Hussein to explain his position: "Our people didn't give our hand to the devil," he quoted Hussein, "We have our dignity so we can't be traitors."

http://www.pacifica.org/programs/reportfromiraq/PacInIraq-20040427.html