USA: SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYS US AND IRAQ FORCES WILL "SQUEEZE" NAJAF UNTIL THE SECURITY SITUATION STABILIZES
Record ID:
222885
USA: SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYS US AND IRAQ FORCES WILL "SQUEEZE" NAJAF UNTIL THE SECURITY SITUATION STABILIZES
- Title: USA: SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYS US AND IRAQ FORCES WILL "SQUEEZE" NAJAF UNTIL THE SECURITY SITUATION STABILIZES
- Date: 13th August 2004
- Summary: (W7) WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (AUGUST 13, 2004) 1. SVL SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL AND CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PIERRE PETTIGREW EXITING THE STATE DEPARTMENT 0.10 2. SMV PHOTOGRAPHERS 0.13 3. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYING:"Our forces in Najaf are squeezing the city, frankly, to help stabilize the situation and deal with the Mehdi army. There are also conversations that are taking place between representatives of Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi interim government, the Iraqi interim government that is in the lead with respect to any such discussions. What we want is and end to this kind of outlaw activities on the part of the Mehdi army and on the part of Mr. al-Sadr. I cannot confirm whether or not he has been injured. I've seen those reports. But as of an hour and a half ago and last I checked, I had no confirmation of his injuries or the extent of his injuries or where he is. As you know, there is a paper out on him. There are charge that have been placed against him by Iraqi authorities. And I hope that in due course he will be available to answer those charges. But that, once again, is a matter between him and the Iraqi interim government, not the United States. What we're trying to do is to stabilize the situation, end the fighting there, deal with those who try to continue fighting. We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque. It's a very holy place for all Shia. And we hope that a solution will be found in the very near future. But there has to be a solution that ends this kind of outlaw activity on the part of the Mehdi Army and similar organizations." 1.51 4. WIDE OF REPORTERS 1.53 5. WIDE OF POWELL AND PETTIGREW 1.54 6. VARIOUS OF POWELL POSING WITH BLACK CAT NAMED COLIN POWELL 2.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C. UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA5XIPTMO2A4HV764OWCVQOZZ69
- Story Text: Colin Powell says U.S and Iraqi forces will continue
to 'squeeze' Najaf until area stabilizes.
U.S. and Iraqi forces will continue to 'squeeze'
the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf until rebels loyal to
radical cleric Moqtada Sadr are pacified, Secretary of
State Colin Powell said on Friday (August 13) outside the
State Department.
"Our forces in Najaf are squeezing the city, frankly,
to help stabilize the situation and deal with the Mehdi
Army," Powell said, referring to the militia that have been
engaged in fierce battles with American and Iraqi forces
for the past nine days.
"What we want is an end to this kind of outlaw
activities on the part of the Mehdi army and on the part of
Mr. al Sadr," he told reporters after meeting with Canadian
Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew at the State Department.
Powell acknowledged that the interim Iraqi government
was involved in talks with representatives of Sadr, who
earlier Friday laid down a series of conditions for the
withdrawal of the militia from Najaf.
"We hope that a solution will be found in the very near
future," Powell said. "But there has to be a solution that
ends this kind of outlaw activity on the part of the Mehdi
Army and similar organizations."
He reaffirmed commitments that U.S. forces would not
attack the Imam Ali shrine, revered by Shiites all over the
world, where many of Sadr's fighters are holed up.
Powell said, "We do not in any way wish to get involved
with the mosque. It's a very holy place for all Shia."
Chief among the conditions Sadr laid down for his
militia to pull out of Najaf is the withdrawal of US-led
forces and handover of the city to the Marjayia, the Shiite
religious authority.
Separately, Powell crossed paths with a black cat
later on Friday the 13th. Powell posed for a picture with a
copper-eyed Bombay male that bears his name.
Colin Powell -- the cat visited with the top U.S.
diplomat and appeared before photographers in the elegant
Treaty Room outside the secretary of state's offices at
the State Department.
The feline was selected as cat of the year by the Cat
Fanciers' Association, which requested, and received, time
with the secretary to photograph the two Colin Powells for
its 2005 yearbook cover, a State Department official said.
The association, which was founded in 1906 and calls
itself the world's largest non-profit registry of pedigreed
cats, said Colin Powell competed against 22,700 other cats
and was judged 290 times before winning its highest award.
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