Text 1140, 87 rader
Skriven 2004-08-09 17:44:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Al-Sadr
===============
It sounds like he is in a hurry to meet Allah .  I think we should 
provide all of the help he needs to accomplish this quickly.


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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5455104/




U.S. taking back control 
of two restive provinces

Multinational force cedes authority 
in Najaf, Qadisiyah, Polish commanders say 


Updated: 1:47 p.m. ET Aug. 9, 2004NAJAF, Iraq - As a radical Shiite 
cleric vowed Monday that his troops would fight to the death, U.S. 
Marines took back control of two Iraqi provinces from multinational 
forces after only 10 days because of the worsening security situation, 
the Polish military said. 

Maj. Krzysztof Plazuk, a spokesman  for the Polish military, told The 
Associated Press that the sudden reversal in Najaf and Qadisiyah 
provinces was ordered by Gen. George Casey, the senior U.S. officer in 
Iraq. U.S. forces in Najaf have been fighting a rebellion by militiamen 
loyal to the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who battled U.S. troops for a 
fifth straight day Monday. 

“Our multinational troops can’t provide offensive operations," another 
Polish spokesman, Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, told the AP.

Multinational authority “lasted only 10 days,ö Plazuk said. “It turned 
out the situation in Najaf was difficult.ö 

The Polish-led multinational force will keep responsibility for three 
other provinces, Babil, Karbala and Wasit, the Polish military said in a 
statement. 

Day of fierce fighting

Explosions and gunfire were heard throughout the city of Najaf and U.S. 
helicopters hovered overhead as U.S. forces tried to drive al-Sadr’s 
Mahdi Army from a vast cemetery they have repeatedly used as a base. A 
U.S. tank rolled within 400 yards of Najaf’s holiest site, the Imam Ali 
Shrine, which is also held by militiamen.

A spokesman at Najaf hospital said that three people were killed, two of 
them policemen, and that 19 others were wounded. A senior U.S. military 
official in Baghdad estimated Monday that 360 insurgents had died in 
Najaf in the first four days of the battle, although al-Sadr’s militia 
insists that the toll has been far lower.

 
Five U.S. troops have been killed in Najaf, according to the military, 
and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 19 
others had been wounded. He said four Iraqi national guardsmen also had 
been killed and 12 others had been wounded.

Al-Sadr vowed to keep up the battle.

“I will continue fighting,ö al-Sadr told reporters Monday. “I will 
remain in Najaf city until the last drop of my blood has been spilled.ö

Al-Sadr’s words were a challenge to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, 
who visited the war-shattered city Sunday under heavy security and 
called on the Shiite militants to stop fighting.

“We think that those armed should leave the holy sites and the [Imam Ali 
Shrine compound] as well as leave their weapons and abide by the law,ö 
he said.

After al-Sadr launched a two-month uprising in April, U.S. commanders 
vowed to “capture or killö him, but that later tacitly agreed to let 
Iraqi authorities deal with the problem. Asked to outline current U.S. 
policy toward al-Sadr, the senior officer in Baghdad said al-Sadr “is 
not an objective. We are not actively pursuing him.ö

Meanwhile, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb northeast of Baghdad, 
killing six people and wounding the deputy governor who was the intended 
target, officials said.


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