Besieged Al-Sadr Keeps Grip on Shrine

[Dancing_Dave]

"Iraqi government claims that police had arrested hundreds of the radical cleric's fighters and taken over his headquarters in Najaf could have come from Saddam's Comical Ali, reports Luke Harding

Sunday August 22, 2004
The Observer

Asked how the battle was going, Commander Abu Mohammad Hilu showed off his latest trophy - a blood-drenched American boot. There was a large bullet hole in the middle. 'We found it after last night's battle,' the commander explained. His colleague, Abu Ali, added: 'Originally there was an American foot inside it and a bit of the leg. But we took it out and threw it to the dogs.'
But the most tangible evidence of the Mahdi army's extraordinary self-confidence yesterday, however, came too close for comfort half an hour earlier. We had been driving through the high street in Kufa, another stronghold of the Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr, some three kilometres from the shrine where he and his supporters are still holed up.

We stopped to inspect a building - this was a mistake. Mahdi army soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs spotted us, then targeted us. In a convoy of two cars, with guns pointing and pushing at us, we were taken to Kufa's mosque.

Ten minutes later The Observer's Iraqi fixer got us released after phoning a high-ranking Sadr aide.

The aggression disappeared, the fighters turned profusely apologetic. More than two weeks after launching their uprising in Najaf, the Mahdi army was - despite reports to the contrary - still in control of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine - and much of the rest of Iraq. Yesterday fighting carried on."

Read the rest at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1288386,00.html

It's really a great piece of on-the-spot investigative journalism. A great, courageous, truth telling journalist.

[JSJ]

1. the mahdi are defending with valour and resolve n/t

[alittlelark]

2. Sooo sick,

But if they were invading MY COUNTRY.........I would do the same.

Flame Away, if you must

[leftchick]

3. These Resistance Fighters are very brave.....

'I lost three fingers while fighting in the cemetery last week,' Abu Muqtada, 38, explained, waving his bandaged right hand. 'An American helicopter shot me from the sky. But my other hand is still working. I can fight with that.'

... something the neocons never figured.