Najaf fighters issued another ultimatum

[Darranar]

This time they really mean it, I suppose. Just like the last five times.

Iraq's interim defence minister has warned fighters besieged in Najaf's Imam Ali shrine to surrender or face an attack later on Tuesday that would "wipe them out".

The ultimatum was the latest in a series of threats by the US-backed government to the al-Mahdi Army loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, which has been fighting American marines around the Imam Ali mosque for three weeks.

"We are in the last hours. This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the al-Mahdi Army to throw down their weapons," Defence Minister Hazim al-Shaalan told a news conference at a US military base outside Najaf.

"If they do not, we will wipe them out."

A spokesman for al-Sadr's office in Baghdad, Raid al-Kadhimy, said: "This is the beginning of the battle."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3EB322D6-588E-406B-B3C1-B80A9CB9B39D.htm

[asjr]

1. If the US military bombs the place to smithereens, there

will be no need for an ultimatum.

[Darranar]

2. If they were going to do that, I think they already would have...

fortunately, they're not that stupid.

[AZCat]

3. They had to get rid of all the reporters and journalists first

Can't have anybody refuting the official story on the eventual destruction of the mosque by that LOONY Al-Sadr! </sarcasm>

[hadrons]

5. I think there are some journalists in the mosque

[Darranar]

6. They can't eliminate all of the eyewitnesses. n/t

[AZCat]

8. I know, and so do they

The Bushies are sloppy, but they know that all they have to do is drag out any investigation stateside long enough to steal the election. By removing english-speaking reporters or video cameras, they can buy some more time. See the SBVfT scenario for an excellent example of propaganda in action.

[Darranar]

9. I don't think it's the election they're worried about...

electorally, striking at the mosque won't harm them much.

What they're worried about is a massive Shi'ite uprising that will likely lead to the collapse of the occupation and the expulsion of the US from Iraq.

While the US media will be able to spin it away, the Iraqi people will be harder to convince.

[AZCat]

10. Hmm. You might be right.

I guess I didn't figure they would worry about that so much, since it is partly in line with their "All War, All the Time!" approach to international relations. But if we lose our new colony in the Middle East, it would make it more difficult to take down all those other non-Bushized states in the region.

[Larkspur]

4. Whatever happened to the neutron bomb?

You know the one in the 1980's that was suppose to kill people but leave the buildings standing upright?

[babylon_system]

7. Are you seriously calling for the use of nuclear weapons?

Sad day when DU is indistinguishable from Free Republic.

[Journeyman]

11. I favor replacing the Neutron Bomb -- the 'N' Bomb -- with. . .

an 'O' and a 'P' Bomb -- they'll kill only Officers and Politicians and leave the rest of us to live in peace.