IRAQ: ONE OF WASHINGTON'S STRONGEST ALLIES CRITICISES UNITED STATES INCURSION INTO IRAQI HOLY CITIES

Record ID: 338225

  • Title: IRAQ: ONE OF WASHINGTON'S STRONGEST ALLIES CRITICISES UNITED STATES INCURSION INTO IRAQI HOLY CITIES
  • Date: 18th May 2004
  • Summary: (W7) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MAY 16, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. AHMED CHALABI, GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBERS AND HEAD OF THE IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS AT NEWS CONFERENCE; REPORTERS 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AHMED CHALABI, GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBERS AND HEAD OF THE IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS SAYING: "We having been demanding that U.S. forces do not invade the two cities of Na
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVACMIW08PO8ARGHOGIEATYUS5AK
  • Story Text: One of Washington's strongest allies criticises US
    incursion into Iraq's holy cities saying more than 1,000
    Iraqi lives lost and that now it is the time to stop.

    Washington ally and Iraqi Governing Council member
    Ahmed Chalabi sharply attacked U.S. tactics on Sunday
    evening (May 16, 2004).

    Once the voice of exiled Iraqis opposed to Saddam
    Hussein and himself a Shi'ite he said Washington's demands
    that Sadr let himself be arrested for murder was
    complicating Iraqi efforts to resolve the crisis.

    U.S. and Italian troops fought Shi'ite militia in at
    least two towns in southern Iraq on Sunday and Italy urged
    Washington to show restraint and work out a plan for the
    occupation forces to leave the country.

    U.S. tanks dominated streets in Kerbala, exchanging
    fire from shortly after dawn with Sadr fighters who
    attacked with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

    "We having been demanding that US forces do not invade
    the two cities of Najaf and Kerbala. This wasn't just talk,
    we communicated with the coalition authorities to warn them
    against attacks in Najaf and Kerbala and told them the
    repercussions of any such operation will last for decades.

    We told them to be patient and to stop killing our sons,"
    Chalabi said.

    Sadr is wanted by the U.S. forces for the killing of Al
    Seiyyed Abdul Majid Al Khoei.

    Chalabi said the warrant had led to the recent fighting
    in Najaf and Kerbala and the deaths of more than a thousand
    Iraqis.

    "I wonder why the price for enforcing an arrest warrant
    should be more than 1,000 Iraqi lives?" He asked.

    U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said U.S.

    troops would stay for some time and should keep Iraqi
    forces under their command after the June 30 handover
    but the Iraqi government would be truly sovereign.

    Chalabi said the detainee abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib
    prison, near Baghdad, had proved to him that the security
    issue should be sorted out sooner rather than later since
    the Iraqi people had lost their trust in U.S. forces.

    He said Iraq's security arrangements must be reviewed
    immediately.

    "I think it is important that we should begin to think
    immediately about the status of the forces here. It was
    part of the November 5th agreement. I think the
    developments and especially what transpired in Abu Ghraib
    makes a, status of forces agreement important," he said.

    The sexual humiliations U.S. guards meted out to
    detainees in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib and captured on film have
    not only undermined U.S. credibility among Iraqis and other
    Arabs but have put its allies in difficulty with their own
    electorates just as Washington is seeking broader U.N.

    involvement in Iraq.


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