US Told
To Avoid Main
Shia Area In Baghdad
By
Charles Clover
The Financial Times - UK
10-11-3
- BAGHDAD -- A powerful Shia
Muslim movement warned US troops on Friday not to enter Baghdad's
largest Shia neighbourhood after a gun battle there on Thursday night
killed two US soldiers and two Iraqis.
-
- It was the worst clash yet between Iraqi Shia
militiamen and US troops. Shia leaders on Friday were calling for
restraint from their followers even as they branded America a "servant
of Israel". US forces are keen to avoid alienating Iraq's Shia
population, who until now have not joined in attacks against US forces
seen mainly in Sunni areas.
-
- Dozens of armed Shia militiamen stood guard at the
site of the battle on Friday, outside the headquarters of Muqtada
al-Sadr, a popular Shia preacher (pictured). His followers insist the
building was the target of a US raid on Thursday night, although US
officials deny this.
-
- US and Iraqi versions of the battle - if it was the
same battle, and both sides insist there was only one - are
contradictory. Both sides agree it happened near Mr al-Sadr's
headquarters in Sadr City. Residents of the neighbourhood claim that
seven US tanks surrounded the headquarters at 9:30pm and fired into the
compound, killing two people inside.
-
- Seyd Hassan al-Mussawi, head of Mr al-Sadr's Jaysh
al-Mahdi militia, said on Friday that his soldiers were not involved in
the fighting, but the US troops were fired on by "ordinary citizens, who
were defending the holy place [the headquarters]".
-
- Lt-Col George Krivo, US army spokesman, said he was
not aware of any raid on Mr al-Sadr's headquarters. He added that the
battle had started after a three-vehicle US patrol was led into an
ambush at 8pm by Iraqis requesting humanitarian aid. He said two US
soldiers were killed and four were injured in the fighting. After the
attack, a quick reaction force was called into the neighbourhood to
secure the area and extract the patrol.
-
- In a Friday prayer service to a crowd gathered outside
the headquarters, Sheikh Abdel Mahdi Darraji, a representative of Mr
al-Sadr, on Friday likened the US to a "terrorist organisation" bent on
dominating the Middle East. He called on the US-appointed Governing
Council to resign "for the sake of their honour" and warned US troops to
stay away from Sadr City.
-
- After the sermon the coffins of two "martyrs",
apparently killed in the battle with US forces, were paraded through the
neighbourhood, cheered by a crowd of 5,000-10,000.
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