Rebels defiant inside shrine (correspondents trapped in shrine overnight)

[Barrett808]

Rebels defiant inside shrine
August 24, 2004
BY HANNAH ALLAM
FREE PRESS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

Free Press correspondent Hannah Allam and a handful of journalists were trapped inside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf on Monday. Allam walked into the shrine unchallenged as sporadic gunfire erupted but could not leave the building because fighting intensified. Here is her report, filed via satellite telephone. NAJAF, Iraq -- The pigeons in the Imam Ali shrine were flying out of the vast courtyard Monday into a sky filled with the smell of blood and the echoes of urban warfare.

The shrine's other residents -- about 500 exhausted supporters of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- slept in patches of shade as U.S.-led forces crushed their comrades in intense street battles just outside the compound. Sniper bullets danced about the ankles of the rebels who ran across the street and through the shrine's ornate doors.

This was Day 19 of the standoff in the southern Shi'ite Muslim city of Najaf. And no one inside the sanctuary was talking about a peaceful outcome.

"If we hand over the keys to the shrine, will that end the occupation of Iraq?" asked Sheikh Ahmad Sheibani, a top al-Sadr aide in the shrine, which Shi'ites consider one of their holiest sites. "If the Iraqi forces come in, we'll fight. We'll all fight."

The countdown is on for those who remain in the shrine. It's been days since the Iraqi government said it was giving al-Sadr hours to vacate the shrine before an elite group of Iraqi National Guardsmen would be sent to reclaim Najaf.

Al-Sadr hasn't appeared publicly in a week. Meanwhile, the U.S. military perimeter around the compound tightened, and the bombs moved closer.

At nightfall, U.S. attacks increased. The buzz of an AC130 gunship could be heard. Nine or 10 times by midnight, aircraft could be heard circling overhead, then a whistling sound and the explosion of a bomb. Shrapnel flew into the shrine's courtyard.

(more)

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/iraq24e_20040824.htm

[donsu]

1. kick

nt

[sushi]

2. The coalition is encouraging civil war

It's sickening!:puke: x( ;(

[Aidoneus]

3. contrast the two movements here

the muqawama allows the press to move however they wish and speaks openly to them. The Baathist dictator and the US occupyers threaten to kill every journalist and even when speaking to them mostly just use them to dissiminate lies.

:shrug: